McConnell acknowledges Biden and Harris won election in major break with Trump


Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has, for the first time, acknowledged Joe Biden is the president-elect – becoming the most senior Republican official to break with Donald Trump’s baseless election challenges.

"As of this morning, our country has officially a president-elect and a vice president-elect,” Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes that will determine who is sworn in on January the 20th.

“The Electoral College has spoken. So today I want to congratulate Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the vice president, and our colleague from California, Senator [Kamala] Harris."

He called it a national milestone that she will be the first female vice president.

Mr McConnell began his session-opening remarks with effusive praise for the efforts by Mr Trump and vice president Mike Pence to push federal agencies and private-sector drug manufacturers to develop, test and deploy Covid-19 vaccines by year’s end.

The speech seemed out of place as lawmakers and the White House limp toward a Friday deadline for government funding and a 26 December expiration date for federal coronavirus relief programs. But as he pivoted to Monday’s Electoral College votes, which saw state electors hand Mr Biden 306 votes – far more than the 270 needed to win – and the president 232, the praise of a president with such a massive ego made sense.

The majority leader was doing the hard work of starting to help Mr Trump understand that he is leaving office on 20 January.
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