WASHINGTON, Nov 13, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The US Senate’s top Democrat warned
his Republican colleagues Thursday that they were “poisoning” the country’s
democracy by continuing to refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden’s presidential
election victory last week.
Only a handful of Republicans have publicly congratulated Biden — who
himself served for decades in the Senate — an awkward break with political
tradition that has heightened the sense of polarization in Washington.
Several Republican lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell have stood firm with President Donald Trump by supporting his
refusal to concede the election and backing the flood of legal challenges
that the party has introduced following the vote.
“We just had a divisive and hard-fought presidential election,” a clearly
frustrated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.
“But instead of working to pull the country back together so that we can
fight our common enemy Covid-19, Republicans in Congress are spreading
conspiracy theories, denying reality and poisoning the well of our
democracy.”
Instead of following political norms and extolling America’s ongoing
tradition of a peaceful transition of power, Republicans who have no evidence
of significant electoral fraud are “denying reality” and “auditioning for
profiles in cowardice,” Schumer went on.
“Congressional Republicans are deliberately casting doubt on our elections
for no other reason but fear of Donald Trump,” he added, even after every
major US media outlet called the race in Biden’s favor.
Political experts have said Republicans may be invoking such a strategy as
a way to rile up Trump’s base before two US Senate runoff elections in
Georgia that will determine which party controls the chamber.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also weighed demanding Republicans stop their
“absurd circus” and turn to combatting the pandemic.
“Now that the people have expressed their views, Joe Biden has won (and)
Kamala Harris will be the first woman vice president of the United States,”
Pelosi said.
Meanwhile, the current administration’s continued delay in recognizing
Biden’s victory is posing “a serious risk to national security,” warned 161
former national security officials, including some who worked with Trump.
In a letter, the group including ex-Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel and Trump’s
former National Security Counsel senior counterterrorism director Javed Ali
urged General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy to recognize Biden
as the apparent president-elect.
Without a GSA signoff, transition funds and other resources including
access to intelligence briefings can not flow to Biden and his team, but
Murphy has refused to budge.
“Further delaying the Biden team’s ability to access the President’s Daily
Brief and other national security information and resources compromises the
continuity and readiness of our national leadership, with potentially immense
consequences for our national security,” the group wrote.