Republican senators who were silent about President Trump’s need to concede to Joe Biden are becoming more vocal.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia is the latest Republican senator to say Trump should acknowledge Biden won the election and that the transition process should begin. Including intelligence and COVID-19 briefings for President-elect Biden, the former vice president and 36-year Delaware senator, and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
“Vice President Biden and Senator Harris should begin receiving all appropriate briefings related to national security and COVID-19 to facilitate a smooth transfer of power in the likely event that they are to take office on January 20,” said Capito, who represents a state Trump won by 40 points.
And that context was reflected in Capito’s carefully-worded statement, lest it stir the wrath of Trump and his supporters.
Moore made it clear that she remains supportive of Trump and believed he had a right to various legal challenges but added, “At some point, the 2020 election must end.”
“The window for legal challenges and recounts is rapidly closing as states certify their results in the coming days,” she wrote. “If states certify the results as they currently stand, Vice President Joe Biden will be our next president and Senator Kamala Harris will be our next vice president.”
Capito is the latest Republican lawmaker to pressure Trump into conceding the race, which has been called by numerous news outlets, including the Washington Examiner. On Nov. 7, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican but ardent critic of Trump, congratulated Biden and Harris on winning the raise.
On Sunday night, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski made a similar call.
“President Trump has had the opportunity to litigate his claims, and the courts have thus far found them without merit,” she said. “A pressure campaign on state legislators to influence the electoral outcome is not only unprecedented but inconsistent with our democratic process.”
Her words were joined by Sen. Rob Portman, who wrote in an op-ed for the Cincinnati Enquirer that “there is no evidence as of now of any widespread fraud or irregularities that would change the result in any state.”
“The Biden team should receive the requested intelligence briefings and briefings on the coronavirus vaccine distribution plan,” Portman wrote. “This is only prudent. Donald Trump is our president until Jan. 20, 2021, but in the likely event that Joe Biden becomes our next president, it is in the national interest that the transition is seamless and that America is ready on Day One of a new administration for the challenges we face.”
Trump won Ohio by nearly 8 points, earning 53.16% of the vote.
The president’s campaign has filed numerous lawsuits in several states he lost, although courts have ruled against them in nearly two-dozen instances, citing little evidence for their claims that potentially hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes tipped the race to Biden.
Conservative commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh have criticized the president’s legal team for promising proof of widespread fraud, particularly the campaign’s former attorney Sidney Powell’s claims of “massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China, and interference with our elections.” On Sunday, Trump’s legal team released a statement that Powell was no longer working with the campaign.
Despite the backlash from lawmakers and influential right-wing pundits, both Powell and the Trump campaign remain adamant that they will prevail in court.
