According to the Associated Press, CNN and other local time on December 15, McConnell admitted Biden’s victory for the first time in his speech to the Senate that day, calling him “president elected” and expressing congratulations. CNN believes that his statement is significant, because many Republican lawmakers still do not want to admit this fact.
Subsequently, the US media “Axios News Network” exclusively disclosed that McConnell had informed the White House Chief of Staff of the “courtesy call” earlier that day before making this statement.
Previously, some Republican congressmen planned to continue the “struggle” in the vote count for the congressional election on January 6 next year. In response, McConnell urged Republican congressmen not to join the ranks.
McConnell admitted Biden’s victory for the first time
Just on the 14th, the results of the U.S. Electoral College voted. As previously predicted by the media, Biden won 306 electoral votes and officially won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, while Trump won 232 electoral votes.
On the 15th, McConnell delivered a speech to the Senate, in which he finally broke weeks of silence on Trump’s defeat and admitted for the first time that Democratic presidential candidate Biden won the election. But at present, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has not yet taken a stand on this.
“I want to congratulate President-elect Biden.” “While many of us want a different outcome from the presidential election, our government system has a process to decide who will be sworn in next January 20, and the Electoral College has said,” McConnell said.
In his speech, McConnell praised Biden as a “man who has been committed to public service for many years” and congratulated his running mate Harris. “All Americans are proud that our country can have the first woman elected vice president,” he said.
According to the Associated Press, Biden revealed to the media that he had talked with McConnell on the 15th to thank him for his speech, saying that the two had had a “good dialogue” and agreed to meet as soon as possible.
While congratulating and praising Biden, McConnell also remembers to praise the current President Trump, who has hyped about Trump’s “rich achievements” in his four-year term and said that Trump and Vice President Pence “deserve our gratitude”.
U.S. media revealed that the White House had learned about this in advance.
According to an exclusive disclosure by two people familiar with the matter, McConnell had already talked to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on the morning of the 15th to inform him of his plan to congratulate Biden on winning the election and officially call Biden “when Election of the president and other contents. However, McConnell did not talk directly to Trump.
The report also pointed out that despite Trump’s repeated defeats in the election lawsuit after the election, McConnell, as the leader of the Senate Republican Party, refused to admit Biden’s victory, and did not come forward to make this statement until after the Electoral College voted. This delay highlights that McConnell still needs Trump’s support before leaving office to push for some “need-pass” legislation.
According to the report, in addition to needing Trump’s help in the Senate, McConnell also hopes that Trump voters will support him in the key Georgia Senate election next month. The two Senate seats in the state will directly determine whether the Republican Party or the Democratic Party will control the U.S. Senate.
Democrat: Learn from McConnell.
McConnell’s speech came just before some key Republicans had admitted that Biden had won the election. Especially after the Electoral College vote, they largely abandoned the election lawsuit that Trump filed.
CNN reported that John Thune, the Republican whip of the Senate, and Roy Blunt, a Republican senator and chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, expressed the same view that the Trump camp’s approach was only futile.
“Sometimes, you have to face the reality. Now that the Electoral College voted to solve everything, everyone should look forward. Thun, a senior Republican “big brother”, said so.
Some Democrats did not seem to buy McConnell’s speech, and stressed that it took Republicans more than 40 days to admit Biden’s victory.
“It’s sad and disappointing, in fact, it took my colleagues six weeks to recognize the reality and stop disrupting our ‘democracy process’,” said Senator Dick Durbin, the second-in-leading Democrat in the Senate.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the 15th that Trump should receive the signal from McConnell’s speech and end his term with dignity and grace. At the same time, Schumer also called on all Republicans in the Senate to follow McConnell’s example.
McConnell shouted: Don’t mess with the House of Representatives.
However, some Republicans in the U.S. Congress still refuse to give up and try to continue to resist.
Under the legal process, after the Electoral College votes, the results will be sent to the U.S. Congress and counted again on January 6 next year. After that, U.S. Vice President and Senate President Pence will announce the results of the vote count, and the next president will be officially sworn in on January 20 next year.
Previously, CNN reported that some of Trump’s strongest Republican allies in the U.S. House of Representatives have planned to continue to fight in next month’s national accounting votes in an attempt to prevent Biden from being sworn in.
In response, some Republicans in the Senate are also “ready to move”. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump’s close friend and firm political ally, said: “For the president, this is a very narrow road. But then again, I think we will make these lawsuits work.
According to CNN and Axios News Network, McConnell urged Republican senators not to join the party’s congressmen against the state election results in a conference call on the afternoon of the 15th. He said that this approach would endanger the incumbent’s re-election in the crucial 2022 midterm elections.
At the same time, some historians and election officials in the United States have also warned that Trump’s unfounded claim of “election fraud” in the election may erode Americans’ confidence in the electoral system, and that congressmen have the responsibility to defend the constitution after swearing in.
