A few cracks but no big GOP break with Trump on Biden's win
WASHINGTON — The most powerful Republicans in Washington stood firmly behind President Donald Trump and his unsupported claims of voter fraud on Thursday, but new cracks emerged among GOP leaders elsewhere who believe it's time for the administration to treat Democrat Joe Biden like the presidentelect he is.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Trump's reelection, became the latest Republican official to say what Trump and his allies refuse to accept. The GOP governor acknowledged that Biden's lead is getting “bigger and bigger by the day” and Trump's legal options are dissipating.
“Joe Biden is the president-elect, and I think like most Americans, we suspect he'll be taking the oath of office in January,” Sununu told reporters, insisting there was no legal fraud in his state, which Biden easily carried.
That's a departure from the overwhelming majority of Republican officials who still refuse to publicly accept Biden's victory. The resistance is complicating Biden's effort to lead a smooth transition to the January inauguration, keeping him from the funding and agency resources typically afforded to an incoming administration.
Worried about the national security implications of those hurdles, some Republicans are beginning to say that Biden should at least have access to intelligence briefings so he has the most complete information about threats facing the country when he takes office.
“I think - especially on classified briefings - the answer is yes,” said the Senate's most senior Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa. That echoed comments by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, among other GOP colleagues.
However, Grassley also said he saw no reason for Biden to have fuller transition access, sticking with an approach from the disputed 2000 election that was later blamed as a national security shortcoming in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The Republicans willing to break publicly with Trump's unprecedented effort to undermine the election remain an extremely small minority. Just a handful of the Senate's 53 and five of the 28 Republican governors had publicly recognized Biden as the president-elect as of Thursday afternoon.
Many Trump allies in Washington see no path to a Trump victory but remain wary of crossing the outgoing Republican president — or his supporters — especially with control of the Senate still uncertain.
Trump turned out a record 72 million voters in the presidential election, which shattered the previous record yet fell 5 million votes short of Biden. Republican leaders believe they need to keep Trump and his base happy and engaged ahead of two upcoming Georgia runoff elections that will determine the Senate majority.
That's likely why, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of Biden's victory, senior Republicans continue to support the president's claims even as he loses a mounting number of legal challenges.
GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested Thursday that Biden doesn't need intelligence briefings because Trump might remain president in the new year.