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'Joe is the President': Mitch McConnell dumps Donald Trump, asks GOP senators not to challenge Biden victory

The Senate majority leader reportedly found no objection during the conference call when he cautioned his Senate colleagues on December 15

Just a few months ago, he faced the opposition and media’s flak for backing President Donald Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court to replace the iconic Ruth Bader Ginsburg because it was not consistent with the Republican Party’s stand on a similar matter four years ago. However, Mitch McConnell seems to have reassessed the GOP’s position of supporting Trump challenging the outcome of the November 3 presidential election which has pushed the red party to a dead end.

On Tuesday, December 15, the 78-year-old Senate Majority Leader warned his GOP colleagues against challenging the Electoral College (EC) votes confirming Joe Biden as the president-elect as he feels such an effort would only split the party. McConnell, who won his seventh term in the chamber last month from Kentucky, pleaded with the caucus to not oppose the Congress when it moves to certify the election of Biden on January 6, according to a Politico report. 

“McConnell told his caucus that challenging the results would force Republicans to take a “terrible vote” because they would need to vote it down and appear against President Donald Trump,” the report said.

'No one objected to McConnell's words' 

Senate Majority Whip John Thune, a senator from South Dakota, and Chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee Roy Blunt, a senator from Missouri, backed McConnell. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito said no one objected on the call to the majority leader asking the members to acknowledge Biden’s win over Trump, Politico added. 

“There wasn’t any pushback to it. There wasn't anyone saying: oh wait a minute. That didn’t occur,” she said. The latest words from McConnell, who announced on the Senate floor a week after the election that “no states have yet certified their election results” and threw his support behind Trump’s challenge, came just a day after the EC officially voted to confirm Biden as the president-elect.

McConnell also acknowledged for the first time that the former vice president will be the next president in his floor remarks. His words also came at a time when several hardline conservative GOP House members, led by Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, are planning to challenge the election outcome on January 6.

“If a Republican senator joins the long-shot effort, however, it will force both chambers to take a vote on the election. But they have yet to get official buy-in from any GOP senators, though Sen Rand Paul (R-Ky.) hasn’t ruled it out,” the Politico report added. Brooks responded to McConnell’s warning tweeting he hoped it’s “fake news”.

“I find it unfathomable that anyone would acquiesce to election theft and voter fraud because they lack the courage to take a difficult vote on the House or Senate floor,” Brooks told Politico in a phone interview. “Last time I checked, that’s why we were elected to Congress.”

Brooks also said in the wake of the Supreme Court dismissing a lawsuit brought by Texas challenging the election results in four key states: “In presidential election contests, Congress has a superior role under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution than the Supreme Court, any federal court, or any state court. Congress is empowered to certify electoral college vote submissions, or not."

Brooks met a number of GOP senators briefly last week to discuss the plan but did not divulge whether anyone was seriously considering the move. It was, however, reported that conservatives were eyeing Alabama Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville — a Trump supporter — as “someone who may get on board”. Tuberville was not part of the conference call that took place on Tuesday, December 15, and GOP senators have no fair idea about his stand. 

McConnell’s warning clearly sends a message that the GOP has found itself in a bind. While Trump and his allies have pressured it to back the incumbent president to continue remaining in power, the party also has to ensure that it wins the two crucial Senate runoff elections in Georgia next month as it will decide which party controls the chamber next. After having lost the presidency and failing to flip the House, the Senate remains the only hope for the GOP.