Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden win

WASHINGTON — Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump amonth after the former vice president’s clear victory of more than 7 million votes nationally and a convincing electoral-vote margin that exactly matched Trump’s 2016 tally.

Two Republicans consider Trump the winner despite all evidence showing otherwise. And another 222 GOP members of the House and Senate — about 88 percent of all Republicans serving in Congress — simply will not say who won the election.

Those are the findings of a Washington Post survey of all 249 Republicans in the House and Senate that began the morning after Trump posted a 46-minute video Wednesday evening in which he wrongly claimed he had defeated Biden and leveled wild and unsubstantiated allegations of “corrupt forces” who stole the outcome from the sitting president.

Ateamof 25 Post reporters contacted aides for every Republican by email and phone asking three basic questions — who won the presidential contest, do you support or oppose Trump’s continuing efforts to claim victory and if Biden wins a majority in the electoral college, will you accept him as the legitimately elected president — and also researched public statements made by the GOP lawmakers in recent weeks to determine their stance on Biden’s win.

The results demonstrate the fear most Republicans have of the outgoing president and his grip on the party, despite hisnewstatus as just the third incumbent to lose reelection in the past 80 years.

More than 70 percent of Republican lawmakers did not acknowledge the Post’s questions as of Friday evening.

In response to the congressional Republicans who have called Biden president-elect identified in the Post survey, Trump tweeted Saturday: “I am surprised there are so many. We have just begun to fight. Please sendmea list of the ... RINOS,” the disparaging acronymfor Republican in name only.

The rest of the GOP largely is hiding from answering questions about the election, neither congratulating Biden nor embracing Trump’s most strident positions and false claims.

Just eight Republicans, 3 percent of all GOP lawmakers, voiced support for Trump’s current strategy of claiming victory and asking state legislatures to declare him the victor in states that he lost.

OnTuesday, McConnell ducked questions about Trump’s claim of fraud and refused to take any leadership role in acknowledging Biden’s victory.

“The future will take care of itself,” he told reporters.

Other highlights from the survey found that:

• 12 of the 52 Senate Republicans acknowledge Biden’s victory.

• Of the 15 House Republicans who recognize the true winner, six are retiring from politics at the end of this month and two more represent districts that Bidenwon convincingly.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., went as far as any Republican in embracing Biden.

The two worked together on the “Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot” proposal, named for Biden’s son who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Within hours of the Nov. 7 declaration of Biden’s victory, Upton vowed to work with the new administration.

“Iamraisingmy hand and committing to work with Presidentelect Biden and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” he said.

Reps. PaulGosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama are the only Republicans in Congress who have publicly insisted Trump is the winner.

Gosar said he never will accept the Democrat as the legitimately elected president.

“No, never. Toomuch evidence of fraud,” he claimed.

But Brooks and Gosar are extreme outliers on Capitol Hill, with the overwhelming majority of Republicans content to avoid the question. Many have stated that somehowthe Dec. 14 meeting of the electoral college, in all 50 states, will provide a clear winner — perhaps expecting Trump to concede that point.