Trump lashes out at McConnell for recognizing Biden’s victory: ‘People are angry!’ – By Timothy Bella (Washington Post) / Dec 16 2020
After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) finally acknowledged on Tuesday that Joe Biden is the president-elect, President Trump publicly pleaded with him to support his continued efforts to upend the election with baseless claims of mass electoral fraud.
“Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up,” the president tweeted at nearly 1 a.m. Wednesday. “Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”
Trump’s tweet made it clear that McConnell’s decision to recognize Biden as president-elect has opened a rift at the top of the GOP, with the president continuing to falsely claim victory while McConnell works behind the scenes to convince Republican senators not to challenge the electoral college, which cast 306 votes for Biden on Monday, formalizing his victory.
Before Tuesday, McConnell was among a majority of GOP lawmakers in both chambers who had declined to acknowledge Biden as the incoming president for weeks. But in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, he said he accepted the electoral college results.
