Sen. Pat Toomey
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) is calling on his Republican colleagues to cooperate with the administrative transition as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office.
During an interview with Pittsburgh's Action News 4, Toomey acknowledged that Biden has been declared the winner of the election as he stressed the importance of moving forward with the transition of power. Although President Donald Trump has continued to push baseless claims of voter fraud, Toomey believes it is time to focus on beginning the "transition process."
"We're on a path it looks likely Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States," Toomey said. "It's not 100 percent certain but it is quite likely. So I think a transition process ought to begin."
Toomey's latest remarks come as White House officials and Senate Republicans continue to back Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud by refusing to acknowledge that he has lost the presidential election.
"President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "Let's not have any lectures about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election."
On Saturday, Biden and Harris delivered their victory speeches as Trump and his campaign team vowed to wage war on states projecting election results that favor Biden. Despite multiple attempts to discredit the outcome of the election, Trump has had several post-election lawsuits dismissed already. Based on all that has transpired in the last week, Toomey admitted the possibility of the election results being overturned is "not the likely outcome."
He added, "And you know, if it turns out that the unlikely scenario actually comes about and it turns out President Trump is determined to have won this election after all, then the transition, of course, becomes moot, and it expires and it evaporates," Toomey said. "But I think that's not the likely outcome, so I think it should begin."
