On Monday, several top Republican senators finally accepted Joe Biden as the president-elect, now that the Electoral College has formally cast their ballots in his favor. Biden won the 2020 presidential election by a huge margin, though so far President Donald Trump has refused to concede, and has contested the election at every turn. Many of the senators who stood by Trump’s conspiracy theories have now acknowledged Biden’s victory.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune was the highest-ranking senator to acknowledge Biden’s victory on Monday, according to a report by The Hill. He said that he saw Biden as the president-elect “as soon as he crosses the 270 vote threshold. In my view that’s how in this country we decide presidential elections. That’s our Constitution, and I believe in following the Constitution.” Biden finished the election with 306 electoral college votes, while Trump had 232.
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“We’ve now gone through the constitutional process, and the electors have voted, so there’s a president-elect,” added Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt. Blunt promised that he would “work with president-elect Biden and his presidential inaugural committee to plan for the swearing-in ceremony.”
“Electoral College vote today makes clear that Joe Biden is now President-elect,” said Ohio Sen. Rob Portman. Asked if she now considered Biden the President-elect, West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said, “It certainly looks that way.” She went on, “I think it’s time to turn the page and begin a new administration.”
Even staunch Trump ally South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Monday that he accepted Biden’s win, and said that the two had talked about working together in the years to come. He said: “There’s things we can do together, some things that we can’t do together. It was a very pleasant conversation.”
Later on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged Biden’s Electoral College victory. “Our country has, officially, a president-elect and a vice-president elect,” McConnell said on the Senate floor, according to a report by CBS News. “I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years… Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.”
Critics have also come down hard on some senators who only acknowledged the victory at this point, saying that they should not be redeemed after entertaining conspiracy theories for so long.
The 2020 presidential election had a historic voter turnout in general, with a record number of votes on both sides, but it was by no means a close race. Biden won by over 7 million votes in total, and nearly five percentage points in the popular vote.
The Trump campaign was within its legal rights to pursue recounts and even to file lawsuits over the election results, but it did so with no clear path to victory. Its investigations have turned up no evidence of widespread voter fraud or election tampering, yet the president continues to post on social media as if such tampering is already proven. These conspiracy theories have convinced many of his supporters, shaking public faith in the democratic system itself.
“I hope that President Trump will put the country first, take pride in his considerable accomplishments, and help President-elect Biden get off to a good start,” said Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander on Monday. “Especially during this pandemic, an orderly transition of power is crucially important.”
