Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) submitted an entry Wednesday to the collection of Republicans weakly acknowledging that President-Elect Joe Biden has won the election, saying that it would be better for his transition process to begin like those past.
“It does appear as though Joe Biden is likely to be certified as the President-elect relatively soon,” Toomey said during a Washington Post live interview. “And so, I think it’d be better if we did begin a transition process that we’ve had in the past. My guess is that will probably begin relatively soon.”
“I think that’s where it’s heading,” he added.
While admitting that “the media has a certain amount of evidence to make those projections,” he refused to confirm that Biden is president-elect now.
“It will be done soon enough and I think the outcome will be clear,” he added.
Insistence on waiting until all the votes are counted and the elections are certified — a standard Republicans certainly did not adhere to in 2016 when outlets called the election for President Donald Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning — seems to be a way for some GOP lawmakers to coddle Trump’s refusal to concede without outrightly rejecting the clear results of the election.
A small number of senators, including Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) have actually extended congratulations to Biden on his victory. Others, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) still entertain Trump’s baseless voter fraud accusations, but have asserted that Biden should be given the tools to begin his transition.
Others, like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have happily boarded the Trump delusion train.
There is simply no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have to be present to undermine Biden’s decisive victory, and the Trump campaign’s lawsuits have been consistently unsuccessful.
While Trump’s petulant refusal to let Biden begin his transition is baseless, it is being propped up by members of his administration and elected Republicans alike.
Biden has dismissed Trump’s attitude as “an embarrassment,” maintaining that his transition is well underway whether the President likes it or not.
