Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Democrat Joe Biden on Tuesday, calling him the president-elect and saying the Electoral College “has spoken.”
The Republican leader’s statement delivered in a speech on the Senate floor ends weeks of silence over President Donald Trump’s defeat. It comes after electors met Monday and affirmed Biden’s election win.
Recommended Videos
BREAKING: Senate Majority Leader McConnell: "The Electoral College has spoken ... Today, I want to congratulate President-elect Biden." pic.twitter.com/lsAdel7rgd
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 15, 2020
“Our system of government to determine who will be sworn in on January the 20th. The Electoral College has spoke,” said McConnell. “So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He has devoted himself to public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time. I look forward to finishing the next 36 days strong with President Trump. Our nation needs us to add another bipartisan chapter to this record of achievement.”
Electoral College makes it official: Biden won, Trump lost (AP)
The Electoral College decisively confirmed Joe Biden as the nation’s next president, ratifying his November victory in an authoritative state-by-state repudiation of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he had lost.
The presidential electors on Monday gave Biden a solid majority of 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, the same margin that Trump bragged was a landslide when he won the White House four years ago.
Heightened security was in place in some states as electors met to cast paper ballots, with masks, social distancing and other pandemic precautions the order of the day. The results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a Jan. 6 joint session of Congress over which Vice President Mike Pence will preside.
For all Trump’s unsupported claims of fraud, there was little suspense and no change as every one of the electoral votes allocated to Biden and the president in last month’s popular vote went officially to each man. On Election Day, the Democrat topped the incumbent Republican by more than 7 million in the popular vote nationwide.