'It's not going anywhere': Republicans reject Trump's campaign to overturn election result

As US Electoral College formalises Joe Biden's win, veteran Republicans say it is time to move on

US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) attends a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to be an associate justice of the US Supreme Court. Mr Cornyn is among leading RShow more

Several senior Republican senators on Monday acknowledged Democrat Joe Biden as the country's president-elect after the Electoral College affirmed his victory, and in Congress rejected the idea of overturning the 2020 presidential election.

As a few of President Donald Trump's most loyal backers contemplated a last-ditch effort to reverse his November 3 election defeat, a growing number of Republicans appeared ready to defy Mr Trump and recognise Mr Biden as the winner more than a month after the vote.

Senator John Thune, the Senate's No 2 Republican, said legislators had the right to challenge electoral votes. But he also said it was "time to move on" and that as soon as Mr Biden "crosses the 270-vote threshold" in the Electoral College, he would be president-elect.

A candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House. Mr Biden passed that threshold on Monday afternoon when California delivered its 55 electoral votes to the Democrat. He will take office on January 20.

Other Republican senators who publicly recognised Mr Biden as president-elect on Monday included Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist from South Carolina; Ohio's Rob Portman; Missouri's Roy Blunt, the Senate's No 4 Republican; and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Mr Thune said that any effort to try to overturn the result when Congress counts the Electoral College votes on January 6 would get little support. "It's not going anywhere," he said.

Senator John Cornyn, another veteran Republican, said he thought any such effort "would be a bad mistake" that would be soundly defeated in the 100-member chamber, currently controlled by his party.

"There comes a time when you have to realise that, despite your best efforts, you've been unsuccessful, that’s sort of the nature of these elections. You've got to have a winner. You've got to have a loser," Mr Cornyn said at the US Capitol.

He said he expected there would be a peaceful transition of power from Mr Trump, who has so far refused to concede the election and launched dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn his loss to Mr Biden.

On Monday, Mr Trump repeated a series of unsupported claims of electoral fraud.

Any effort to try to persuade Congress not to certify the Electoral College count on January 6 must earn majority approval from both chambers of Congress that day. Democrats control the House of Representatives, while enough Republicans in the Senate have acknowledged Mr Biden's victory to ensure any challenge would almost certainly fail.

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