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More Republicans Say It’s Time for Trump to Start Transition
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November 23, 2020
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1:58Now Playing“There has to be an end” to President Donald Trump’s fight to reverse the outcome of the Nov. 3 election, which the incumbent lost to Joe Biden, Republican Senator Kevin Cramer said on Sunday, joining a small but growing number of GOP officials.
“It’s past time to start a transition, to at least cooperate with a transition. I’d rather have a president who has more than one day to prepare,” the North Dakota lawmaker said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Kramer said he told his staff “well over a week ago” to cooperate with any transition outreach, adding, “we have a government to run.” Senator John Cornyn of Texas tweeted on Sunday that Biden should now be getting intelligence briefings.
The comments came hours after fellow GOP Senator Pat Toomey said Trump “has exhausted all plausible legal options” in Pennsylvania, and that it was time to concede.
“President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process,” Toomey said in a lengthy statement Saturday night after a Trump campaign lawsuit that challenged the Pennsylvania vote was thrown out. The campaign has vowed to appeal.
The Pennsylvania senator noted that the judge in the case, Matthew Brann, was “a longtime conservative Republican,” even though he was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Brann called the legal claims brought by Trump a “Frankenstein’s Monster.”
The “ruling follows a series of procedural losses for President Trump’s campaign,” Toomey said, including a hand recount confirming Trump lost Georgia. He also cited Michigan, where, he said, “lawmakers rejected the apparent attempt by President Trump to thwart the will of Michigan voters and select an illegitimate slate of electoral college electors.”
Toomey warned that Trump’s actions now risk overshadowing what the Republican senator described as “outstanding accomplishments” over the past four years.
“Joe Biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th President of the United States,” said Toomey, who has announced he will not run for re-election in 2022. “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory.”
Toomey’s comments were rebuked by Trump on Twitter, who said “Senator Pat ‘No Tariffs’ Toomey” was “no friend of mine.”
Earlier, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, chair of the House Republican Conference, said it was time for Trump to respect “the sanctity of our electoral process.”
If Trump cannot prove the claims of widespread fraud that he and his lawyers have made, “he should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Cheney said in a statement reported by Politico.
Her comment also attracted a critical tweet from Trump.
H. R. McMaster, Trump’s former national security adviser, said on CBS that Trump’s failure to accept the election results was “corrosive,” and played into Russia’s hands by undermining faith in democracy and U.S. institutions.
And Chris Christie, the former New Jersey Republican governor and Trump confidant, said the conduct of the president’s legal team had been “outrageous” and a “national embarrassment.”
“They allege fraud outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom, they don’t plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud,” Christie said on ABC’s “This Week.” “You have an obligation to present the evidence. The evidence has not been presented.”
Only a few other GOP senators have distanced themselves from Trump’s attempts to reverse or discredit the outcome of the election.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah issued the strongest rebuke, saying that by pressuring state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election, “it is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting president.”
Trump’s efforts -- including bringing Michigan state GOP lawmakers to the White House on Friday -- may prove to be a bridge too far for some Republicans, who mostly have been tolerant of the president’s extended legal challenges.
Most GOP lawmakers and office-holders including governors haven’t yet recognized Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election.
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