12/16/20
Senate Republicans are sending a clear message to President Trump: The election is over and Joe Biden won. While Trump is digging in and showing little sign of ending his public campaign despite a long losing streak in the courts, GOP senators - from leadership on down - are signaling they view the election result as settled and want to move on without a messy weeks-long fight. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) publicly congratulated Biden during a Senate floor speech, in his first public acknowledgement of the former vice president's victory. He subsequently urged Senate Republicans during a caucus call, which was quickly leaked to the media, not to object to the election results on January 6 as Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has said he's looking for a GOP senator to join him on his plan to contest the Electoral College count. McConnell's remarks in the call reflected two truths: that he and other GOP Senate leaders want an end to the fight, and that they are worried that House Republicans are ready to keep it going. If a single GOP senator joins Brooks, it would ensure a vote by both chambers of Congress that would divide Republicans and publicly force them to vote against Trump, which the Senate's top Republicans seem keen to avoid. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), an advisor to McConnell, said it was the "explicit feeling" of Senate GOP leadership that it was time to accept the results of the Electoral College, which formally certified Biden's win on Monday, and move on.
"I think you know that the Electoral College made the definitive vote obviously ...and it's timely for Senator McConnell to move forward," he said. "Let's turn the page and start a new administration and thank the previous one." The GOP leader is far from the only senator who is signaling to the president, through public comments, that they are ready to close the book on a chaotic presidential election, however. "I think everybody realized yesterday that counting the voting of the electors was a pivotal moment. And I agree," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a close ally to McConnell. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) dismissed the idea of trying to challenge the election in Congress next month, arguing that it would only delay the inevitable: That Biden won the election. "It creates a debate that has a certain outcome and that will certainly fail," he said. Biden has already had calls with several GOP senators as he tries to lay the groundwork for his administration. Regardless of which party controls the Senate majority, Biden is going to need cooperation from Senate Republicans to get most legislation passed. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) - a close Trump ally who was recently calling up state officials to question their election processes - disclosed shortly after the Electoral College made Biden's win official that they had already talked "a while ago."
