Chuck Schumer Calls on Republicans to 'Stop Denying Reality' and Focus on Pandemic

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in calling on their Republican colleagues to accept the 2020 presidential election results Thursday, more than a week after the election. President Donald Trump has not conceded, despite most major media outlets projecting President-elect Joe Biden won the election on Nov. 3. Schumer told Republicans to "stop denying reality" and accused them of throwing a "temper tantrum."

"The election is over. It wasn't close. President Trump lost," Schumer said, reports ABC News. "Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next vice president of the United States. Senate Republicans: stop denying reality." The New York Democrat said the election results were "not in doubt," adding, "This is nothing more than a temper tantrum by Republicans, nothing more than a pathetic political performance for an audience of one: President Donald John Trump."

Despite no evidence of widespread fraud during the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans have continued to support Trump's legal challenges to the election. Outside a handful of Republican senators, many have also refused to refer to Biden as "president-elect." McConnell hinted Tuesday he would not acknowledge the results until the Electoral College vote on Dec. 14.

Meanwhile, Pelosi is still trying to get a coronavirus relief package passed, but her talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin crumbled just before the election. Pelosi and Schumer said Thursday they still support a relief bill that costs over $2 trillion. "Words have power. When the president speaks, his words weigh a ton and we've heard some things lately that are very disconcerting, but numbers have eloquence, too," Pelosi said, referring to the alarming spike in coronavirus cases and deaths in the past week.

Pelosi described the election results as a "mandate" for Biden, while Schumer said Trump's approach to the pandemic was "repudiated." Biden's approach "was embraced," Schumer said. "And that's why we think there's a better chance to get a bill in the lame-duck [period]. If only the Republicans would stop embracing the ridiculous shenanigans that Trump is forcing them to do in the election and focusing on what people need."

On Thursday, Biden also spoke with Schumer and Pelosi, according to a statement from his transition team. The three Democrats discussed the "urgent need for the Congress to come together in the lame-duck session on a bipartisan basis to pass a bill that provides resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, relief for working families and small businesses, support for state and local governments trying to keep frontline workers on the payroll, expanded unemployment insurance, and affordable health care for millions of families," the statement read.