President-Elect Joe Biden’s Transition: Live Updates as McConnell Backs Trump’s Refusal to Concede
Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, did not contradict President Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. unveiled his coronavirus task force. Mr. Trump fired Mark T. Esper, the secretary of defense.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican in Congress, on Monday threw his support behind President Trump’s refusal to concede the election, declining to recognize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory as he argued Mr. Trump was “100 percent within his rights” to challenge the outcome.
Even as he celebrated the success of incumbent Republican senators who won re-election and the winnowing of Democrats’ House majority, Mr. McConnell, the majority leader, treated the outcome of the presidential election as uncertain, and hammered Democrats for calling on Mr. Trump to accept the results.
“President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” the Kentucky Republican said, delivering his first comments since Mr. Biden was declared the winner. “Let’s not have any lectures about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election.”
Mr. McConnell did not contradict Mr. Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him, instead endorsing the president’s vow to pursue a bevy of lawsuits in key swing states aimed at handing him a victory. He said that “this process will reach its resolution” and that the nation’s legal and political system “will resolve any recounts or litigation.”
Following him on the floor, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said flatly that “Joe Biden won this election fair and square.” He called Mr. Trump’s claims “extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy” and warned Republican leaders not to give it oxygen.
“Republican leaders must unequivocally condemn the president’s rhetoric and work to ensure the peaceful transfer of power,” Mr. Schumer said.
Yet none have done so, and only a handful of Republican senators have acknowledged Mr. Biden’s victory.
Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, broke ranks and congratulated Mr. Biden on his “apparent victory” and stressed the need to begin a presidential transition. She was only the fourth senator in her party to recognize his election since he declared victory on Saturday.
“He loves this country, and I wish him every success,” Ms. Collins said in a statement. “Presidential transitions are important, and the president-elect and the vice president-elect should be given every opportunity to ensure that they are ready to govern on January 20.”
Ms. Collins said that Mr. Trump should be given an opportunity to challenge the results and urged Americans to be patient. “I know that many are eager to have certainty right now,” she said. “While we have a clear direction, we should continue to respect that process.”
Ms. Collins easily and unexpectedly won re-election last week even as Mr. Biden carried her state by a comfortable margin. She will return to Washington for a fifth term with unusual power, given her ability to sway votes in a closely divided Senate on areas where she may find common ground with a Biden administration.
Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Sasse of Nebraska are the only other Republicans in the chamber who have publicly congratulated Mr. Biden.
Mr. Sasse, an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump, congratulated Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Sunday, telling The Omaha World-Herald he and his wife would pray that both the incoming and outgoing president “would be wise in the execution of their respective duties during this important time in our nation.”
