The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, publicly acknowledged this Tuesday the triumph of the president-elect, Joe Biden, in the November elections.
After weeks of silence after meeting as a result, McConnell delivered a short speech from the Senate floor.
First, for about 10 minutes, he listed what he considers to be the accomplishments of the Trump Administration over the past four years.
He then said the words that Democrats had been waiting for and that some Republicans resent today.
["Democracy has prevailed": Biden speaks to the nation and condemns Trump for failing to acknowledge defeat]
"The Electoral College has spoken. So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden," he said. "
The President-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He has been in public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the Vice President-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris. Regardless of our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a vice president elected for the first time. "
The last sentence of McConnell's speech reads as a message to outgoing President Donald Trump, who has yet to officially acknowledge defeat by arguing without evidence that there was election fraud: "I hope to end the next 36 days strong with President Trump. .
Our nation needs to add another bipartisan chapter
to this record of achievement ,
"said the senator.
Protesters protest with speakers and posters in front of Senator Mitch McConnell's house
Sept.
20, 202000: 27
Trump reacted by criticizing McConnell's position.
"It's too early to give up," he tweeted.
"The Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!" He also said.
Support for Trump's unfounded theories of electoral fraud began to weaken this Monday in the Senate after the Electoral College made Biden's victory official.
Many Republican leaders say that the time has come to acknowledge the results, although some still stick faithfully to the speech of the president, also a Republican.
The senators affirmed that the certification should be considered
the final conclusion of an election
that has polarized the country, although they recalled that Trump could still try to challenge the election results in the courts, despite the latest judicial setbacks he has suffered.
"I understand that there are people who feel strongly affected by the outcome of this election, but in the end, at some point, you have to face the music," John Thune, senator from South Dakota, told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to The New York Times.
"And I think that since the Electoral College has resolved the issue, it
is time for everyone to move on," he
added.
John Thune, Republican Senator from South Dakota, on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 18, 2017.AP Photo / J.
Scott applewhite
McConnell remained silent on Monday and only spoke briefly about the economic stimulus package negotiations, until he joined the trend in his party and finally acknowledged Biden's victory on Tuesday.
Even Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who for weeks fanned Trump's accusations in the states that are key to defining the elections, said that now he
only saw "a very, very narrow path for the president"
and that already he had contacted Biden and some of his team members.
John Cornyn, a Republican senator from Texas, tried to dissuade members of his party from continuing to challenge the election results.
"That would be a big mistake.
I think there comes a time when you have to realize that despite your best efforts, you have not succeeded
. You have to have a winner and you have to have a loser," he declared.
[William Barr will step down as attorney general next week, Trump reported]
Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, and the party's longest-serving member of the party, reluctantly accepted his colleagues' speech after the Electoral College was formalized when a reporter asked him if he now considered Biden as president-elect.
"I don't have to, the Constitution does.
I follow the Constitution,
" he said.
Thom Tillis, a senator from North Carolina, called Biden a "presumed president," pending the outcome of the pending lawsuits.
Others were more direct.
Donald Trump lashes out at Supreme Court after refusing to overturn Joe Biden's victory
Dec. 13, 202000: 30
"We are going to deal with Vice President Biden as president-elect," said Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.
Biden expressed optimism on how Republicans would respond to him as president Monday during a virtual event, and said seven Republican senators had already said they wanted to work with him.
Yet many of Trump's most ardent supporters did not seem willing to change course.
[Supreme Court rejects Trump-backed Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of votes for Biden]
Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller said Monday on Fox News that as they spoke,
"an alternate list of voters in the disputed states is going to vote,"
and those votes will be sent to Congress, in a last Trump effort. for reversing the results of the presidential elections.
Stephen Miller, Senior White House Adviser, at the White House, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020.AP Photo / Patrick Semansky
Miller said the Trump campaign had "plenty of time" to seek legal solutions, despite not having been successful in any of its dozens of lawsuits so far.
Miller said that January 20, the day of the inauguration, was the deadline, and that electoral challenges were likely to extend until January 6, when Congress meets to formally accept the results of the Electoral College. .
Miller added that "the judges are giving in" to "pressure from the corrupt corporate media" and that President Trump needs "heroes to step up and do the right thing."
Only a small group of Republican senators congratulated Biden when the election results were released in early November.
On Monday, many of McConnell's closest allies, including most of his leadership team, began breaking ranks.
[Putin congratulates Biden on his election victory after resisting for weeks]
That stance has angered Democrats and even some Republicans like Paul Mitchell, a Michigan representative, who announced on Monday that he was
leaving the Republican party,
tense by the attitude of his colleagues.
"It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our electoral system as if we were a third world nation
and incite distrust in something basic such as the sanctity of our vote," Mitchell wrote, in a letter to Ronna McDaniel, Chairperson of the Republican National Committee, which he later made public on the social network Twitter.
Mitchell wrote that he was leaving the Republican Party over refusal to accept Trump's defeat, and warned that
his colleagues risked "long-term damage" to democracy.
"If Republican leaders collectively tolerate unfounded conspiracy theories without speaking out in favor of our electoral process, which the Department of Homeland Security said is 'the safest in American history,'
our nation will be harmed,
" Mitchell wrote. .
With information from Fox News and The New York Times.