MITCH: OK JOE WINS
Even Don’s biggest Senate backer congratulates Biden on victory
The Electoral College has spoken. So, today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden
MITCH McCONNELL
Even Mitch admits it’s over. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, finally congratulated Joe Biden Tuesday on winning last month’s election, ending a quixotic six-week effort to deny the reality of President Trump’s defeat.
A day after the Electoral College made it official, the powerful Kentucky Republican acknowledged the election outcome on the Senate floor and called Biden president-elect for the first time.
“The Electoral College has spoken. So, today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said.
The GOP leader said the Electoral College certification — which came and went without any major hiccups — showed that American democracy is working, despite the toxic divisions that Trump has spawned by refusing to accept defeat.
“Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result,” McConnell said. “But our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20.”
Biden secured 306 electoral votes, far more than the 270 needed to win, and Trump got 232, according to the final certification. Nationwide, Biden beat Trump by a record 7 million ballots in the popular vote.
McConnell also pointedly congratulated Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Biden’s soon-to-be vice president.
“Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time,” he said.
Biden told reporters later in the day that he called McConnell to thank him for the speech.
“I had a good conversation with Mitch McConnell,” Biden said. “Told him that although we disagree on a lot of things, there’s things we can work together on.”
McConnell’s acknowledgment of Biden’s election is likely to end any serious GOP resistance and gives the green light for anxious rank-and-file Republicans to admit that it’s over for Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) lamented that it took McConnell more than a month to accept the election results — which became clear on Nov. 7.
Still, the New York Democrat urged Trump and all other Republicans to follow McConnell’s lead.
“For the sake of the country, President Trump should take his
I had a good conversation with Mitch McConnell ... Told him that although we disagree on a lot of things, there’s things we can work together on.
PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN
cue from leader McConnell that it’s time to end his term with a modicum of grace and dignity,” Schumer said. “Enough is enough.”
Trump did not react publicly to McConnell’s comments and stayed behind closed doors at the White House all Tuesday.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany kept denying reality on her boss’ behalf.
“The president is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election,” she told reporters, adding that the Electoral College certification was only “one step in the constitutional process.”
Despite McEnany’s claims, Trump has all but exhausted his options to overturn the election.
His campaign and associated entities have lost dozens of baseless legal challenges alleging mass voter fraud, culminating in the Supreme Court dismissing a Trump-backed effort Friday to throw out all election results in four battleground states won by Biden.
Meanwhile, election and law enforcement officials across the political spectrum, including Trump’s own attorney general, have affirmed that there’s no evidence to suggest the election was tainted by widespread fraud.
The absolute last frontier for Trump is a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, when lawmakers are supposed to count the Electoral College votes with Vice President Mike Pence presiding.
Some Trump-loyal House Republicans are vowing to challenge the Electoral College votes during the joint session — an effort that’s ultimately toothless since it would fail without Democratic support.
Making the effort even more pointless, McConnell told GOP senators on a caucus call Tuesday afternoon to not entertain any challenges to the electoral results during the Jan. 6 session.
“There wasn’t any pushback to it. It wasn’t anybody saying, ‘Oh, wait a minute,’ you know. So that didn’t occur,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told reporters of McConnell’s word of warning.
“At the end of the day, you have to accept what the people’s voices told you.”
Historians and election officials warn that Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud — and the now-collapsing GOP effort to back him — will erode Americans’ faith in democracy.
McConnell, keenly aware of the grip Trump continues to hold on the Republican Party, prefaced his floor remarks by listing off some of the outgoing president’s “endless” accomplishments.
He said Trump delivered on his promise to “shake up Washington” and added that he and Pence “deserve our thanks.”