As President Donald Trump continues to insist he won the election, despite the fact that nearly 40 of his campaign’s lawsuits alleging widespread voter fraud have all failed in court, Congressional Republicans are largely following his lead, so much that only 25 out of 222 acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in a new Washington Post poll.
When asked who won the election, 25 Congressional Republicans said Biden and 2 said Trump. When asked if they support Trump’s efforts to claim victory, 9 said they opposed it and 8 supported it, and when asked if they would recognize Biden as the winner if the Electoral College does the same, 30 said yes and 2 said no.
“A team of 25 Post reporters contacted aides for every Republican by email and phone… and also researched public statements made by the GOP lawmakers in recent weeks to determine their stance on Biden’s win,” the publication reports. “More than 70 percent of Republican lawmakers did not acknowledge The Post’s questions as of Friday evening.”
It’s presumed that many Republicans ducked the question or denied Biden’s win in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the Trump and his supporters who have pledged to vote out anyone who supports Biden’s alleged “theft” of the election.
Of the Republicans, the publication adds, “11 of the 52 Senate Republicans acknowledge Biden’s victory; of the 14 House Republicans who recognize the true winner, six are retiring from politics at the end of this month and two more represent districts that Biden won convincingly.”
As of December 5, Biden won 7,059,780 more popular votes than Trump and 74 more electoral votes. Enough states have certified their election results to make Biden the winner, but Trump continues to try and persuade Republican-led state legislatures to pledge to send “non-faithful electors” in the college to vote Trump in despite losing.
On Friday, Trump’s former counselor Kellyanne Conway said that it looks as if Biden “will prevail” in being seated as the next president in January 2021.