Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) congratulated Joe Biden on becoming the president-elect, and President Donald Trump has a message for him.
“Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot),” Trump tweeted.
He continued, “Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”
Trump was responding to a Daily Mail article titled, “Trump’s allies slam Mitch McConnell for congratulating Biden.”
Trump's allies slam Mitch McConnell for congratulating Biden https://t.co/ak9nu6420L via @MailOnline. Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2020
On the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell acknowledged for the first time publicly that Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris won the 2020 presidential election. This came a day after the Electoral College affirmed Biden’s win.
“Yesterday electors met in all 50 states. So, as of this morning, our country has officially a president-elect and a vice president-elect,” McConnell said.
He added, “Many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result. But our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on January the 20th. The electoral college has spoken.”
Among those who criticized McConnell for his congratulations, which the Daily Mail pointed out, was pardoned former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who reposted a tweet reading, “It appears we need a few million AMERICAN PATRIOTS to let [Mitch McConnell] know we aren’t on board with his ‘President Elect Biden’ mindset.”
Flynn tweeted, “We won’t fail or cower like some in the Republican Party have shown.”
Following McConnell’s congratulations, Biden revealed that he “called to thank” the Senate leader and “told him although we disagree on a lot of things, there’s things we can work together on.”
Harris also responded to McConnell acknowledging Biden as the president-elect.
“I applaud Mitch McConnell for talking to Joe Biden today,” Harris said during an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, adding, “It would have been better if it were earlier, but it happened, and that’s what’s most important…Let’s move forward.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked during Tuesday’s press conference if Trump acknowledges Biden as the president-elect following the Electoral College vote, to which she responded, “The president is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election.”
“Yesterday’s vote was one step in the constitutional process, so I will leave that to him and refer you to the campaign for more on that litigation,” she added.