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Supporters of Donald Trump gather in front of the White House near counter protesters in Washington, D.C. on Nov 13, 2020.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
As more U.S. states certify their presidential election results and the formal transition process begins, some Republicans are saying aloud what many have avoided saying for weeks: Donald Trump lost.
“I voted for President Trump but Joe Biden won. The transition should begin for the sake of the country,” tweeted Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, after Michigan officials late Monday certified Biden had won their state.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is retiring at the end of the current Congress, doubled down on a prior statement and called on Trump to concede gracefully.
“Since it seems apparent that Joe Biden will be the president-elect, my hope is that President Trump will take pride in his considerable accomplishments, put the country first and have a prompt and orderly transition to help the new administration succeed. When you are in public life, people remember the last thing you do,” he said.
In the nearly three weeks since the election, Republicans on Capitol Hill have tried to walk a fine line between possibly triggering criticism from a president who insists, without evidence, he won the Nov. 3 vote and appearing in denial about the election outcome.
To walk this line, Republicans have taken a variety of approaches, ranging from full-throated declarations that Trump may yet be sworn in again as president, to statements that Biden will likely be the next president but Trump is within his rights to exhaust his legal remedies, and to publicly urging Trump to concede and start the transition process.
Retiring lawmakers, like Alexander, who have less to fear from a stray Trump tweet taunting them, have been the most prominent in the “begin the transition” statements, while others who may be up for reelection in 2022 or who harbor hopes to run for the White House in 2024 have been the most likely to take the White House’s defense.
Trump has not made it easy for Republicans, declining to concede and retweeting allegations the balloting was faulty. Trump tweeted his approval of the transition start Monday but on Tuesday said that did not mean he would stop pursuing his legal claims.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said Tuesday Trump needed to present his case in court, even as Trump’s legal team has racked up overwhelming losses in their cases so far.
“I acknowledge it increasingly looks like it’s going to be a President Biden but whether I say it or I don’t say it, whether Donald Trump says it or doesn’t say it, that’s not really the issue. The issue in my mind is we can’t just let trust of the system be the goal. The goal has to be something worthy of the peoples’ trust,” Cramer said on MSNBC.
The new tone is softer than what other Republicans on Capitol Hill have been saying in the weeks following the election.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican up for reelection in 2022, had the most curt reply, when asked earlier this month why he had not congratulated Joe Biden.
“Nothing to congratulate him about yet,” Johnson told reporters.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who won his reelection race, said his standard for calling Biden the president-elect has nothing to do with Biden.
“When Trump concedes, or the court cases have been dismissed, and the states certified,” Graham said Tuesday.
But as the Trump legal team has racked up courtroom losses and the political pressure for Trump to concede and for the presidential transition to begin has increased, some are combining play-out-the-string with let’s-move-on sentiments.
Sen. Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican who has been cited as a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, told reporters Friday that Trump was within his rights to press his claims.
“By all means, submit it to a court. That’s why we have the process and work through,” he said.
When asked if he thought Trump could win, Hawley replied, “Anything’s possible.”
While Alexander declined to run for reelection this year, two senators facing voters in 2022, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rob Portman of Ohio, have joined his call for the transition to start.
“Each state has worked to ensure a free and fair elections process. President Trump has had the opportunity to litigate his claims and the courts have thus far found them without merit,” Murkowksi said Sunday in a statement. “It is time to begin the full and formal transition process.”
Portman, writing in a Cincinnati paper Monday, called for the vote to be finalized by Dec. 8.
“I voted for President Trump, was a co-chair of his campaign in Ohio, and I believe his policies would be better for Ohio and the country,” he wrote.
“But I also believe that there is no more sacred constitutional process in our great democracy than the orderly transfer of power after a presidential election.”
