Certain members of the GOP distance themselves from President Donald Trump’s refusal to allow President-elect Joe Biden to run in the 2020 election, although Trump continues to claim that the election was fraudulent.
The Trump allegations of election fraud range from improper access to polling stations by Republican observers to computer fraud by the voting machine manufacturer Dominion. Many critics have dismissed Trump’s allegations as unfounded. Lawsuits filed by Trump’s legal team to overturn state election results have been largely dismissed by the judges.
While some Republicans remain silent about Trump’s position and the allegations of election victory, others have made statements indicating a willingness to accept a Biden victory.
“Some people in this administration, but fortunately not all, have been knocked down and vilified,” Trump said Wednesday in a speech published in the social media. “They just disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to them.”
Trump was possibly referring to a statement by U.S. Attorney General William Barr. In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said that while the DOJ had investigated some allegations of election fraud, the DOJ had not seen “fraud on such a scale” that “a different election result could have caused”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of Trump’s staunchest allies, alluded to Biden’s likely victory during a press conference on Tuesday. While discussing the progress of a new coronavirus stimulus package, McConnell told reporters that there will be discussions about “an additional package of some size next year, depending on what the new administration wants to pursue.
In a November tweet, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy wrote that “President Trump’s legal department has not presented any evidence of the massive fraud that should have gone into overthrowing the election. I voted for President Trump, but Joe Biden won.”
After the ballots were counted for the second time in Georgia, Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger declared Biden the winner of the state elections on Wednesday. Raffensperger, a Republican, said in November that he had voted for Trump.
“As many of us have said,” Raffensperger told reporters, “we wish our man had won the election. But it does not look like our man won the election.
Washington Newsday asked the Biden transition team for a comment.
Despite the reluctance of some GOP lawmakers to recognize Biden’s victory, many leaders on the world stage have reached out their hands to congratulate the elected president, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump has a friendly relationship, has refused to congratulate Putin until Trump’s legal challenges to the election are resolved.
“Obviously one can see that certain legal procedures are coming up there, which were announced by the incumbent president,” said Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in November. “Therefore, this situation is different, so we think it is right to wait for the official announcement”.
