Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told fellow Republicans on Tuesday to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s election.
McConnell told lawmakers in a telephone conference call not to attempt to block Biden’s win on Jan. 6, when Congress votes to certify the election results.
The warning came one day after electors from each state met and determined Biden the winner of the Nov. 3 election.
“There was encouragement on the phone for us to accept the result, as much as it’s not what we would have envisioned for the next four years, and to try to do what’s best for the American people, which is to look forward,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican who was on the call, said.
McConnell congratulated Biden as the president-elect during his morning floor speech.
“Many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “The Electoral College has spoken.”
According to Republicans on the call, no lawmaker objected to McConnell’s call for a clean certification of the Biden win. Many Republicans have begun publicly acknowledging Biden as the winner.
On the call, McConnell raised the 2005 election certification objection from then-Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat.
Boxer delayed George W. Bush’s certification as the winner of the presidential election for several hours, citing election irregularities. The GOP harshly criticized Boxer over the move.
