GOP will ‘accept’ 2020 election results even if Trump loses, McCarthy says

‘Yeah, people will accept what the results are,’ Republican leader says

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has signalled that he and fellow Republicans would “accept” the results of the 2020 election even if Donald Trump has lost, a subtle divergence from the president’s position.

“At the end of the day, when every legal vote is counted, when every recount is finished, and every legal challenge is heard — yeah, people will accept what the results are,” Mr McCarthy, the California Republican, told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

Mr McCarthy did not qualify his statement with whether he believed Mr Trump’s ongoing legal challenges to ballot-counting in key swing states such as Georgia or Michigan would result in the reversal of the president’s projected fortunes, which currently have him losing to President-elect Joe Biden.

Mr Trump and his campaign legal team have maintained that once all legal votes are counted and illegal votes shredded, he will be the victor, despite the fact they have presented no evidence supporting such a claim.

“I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!” the president tweeted earlier this week.

He later added: “We will WIN!”

While many of Mr Trump’s most ardent supporters in Congress have backed his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud and that he will win a presidential race that was called weeks ago for Mr Biden, Mr McCarthy’s statement on Thursday served as a reminder of how the GOP establishment is approaching Mr Trump’s sabre-rattling on the election results: Let the president make his claims (which carry the political benefit of stirring resentment among the conservative base over a “stolen election”), let the courts dismiss those cases since nearly all of them lack sufficient evidence, then simply move on.

Leaders like Mr McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledge privately that Mr Trump has lost the election, several news outlets have reported, but it behoves them politically not to directly cross Mr Trump in public.

Another example of that tightrope walk from Thursday’s press conference: a reporter asked Mr McCarthy about new revelations from The Washington Post that Mr Trump had called a local election official in Michigan amid her jurisdiction’s process to certify the election results, which Democrats have said constitutes tampering. The House minority leader retorted, however, that such calls were commonplace among lawmakers in DC.

“I don't know who the president called, but the president is an American citizen. He can find out any facts that are going on. I know a number of [US House] members who call their election officials [to] ask, 'How many votes are left? When's the count going to take place? Are there provisional ballots? How many are within my district?'” Mr McCarthy said.

The GOP leader pointed out that four congressional races still have not been called, even though Election Day was over two weeks ago.

Mr McCarthy’s comments mirror previous remarks from his Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has attempted to paint as normal Mr Trump and other Republicans’ unprecedentedly extensive legal challenge to the 2020 vote count.

There’s “no reason for alarm,” the majority leader told reporters at the Capitol last week.

“Until the electoral college votes, anyone who's running for office can exhaust concerns about counting in any court of appropriate jurisdiction,” Mr McConnell said. “That’s not unusual. That should not be alarming.”

The majority leader continued: “At some point here we'll find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states. And the electoral college will determine the winner. And that person will be sworn in on January 20. No reason for alarm.”

But the president’s rhetoric and actions in the 16 days following Election Night have corresponded with millions upon millions of Americans — Republican voters, mostly — losing faith in the integrity of the US elections, polling has found.

That GOP leaders in Congress are not directly repudiating the president’s claims, and are in many cases abetting them, has exacerbated that erosion of trust in the electoral system, the bedrock of American democracy, Democrats have said.

“They're trying to distract and divide the country as they refuse to accept the election results,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at her weekly press conference last week. 

“The election is over. Joe Biden is the president‑elect, elected with a mandate of over 78 million votes,” she said, urging the GOP to come to the table on more Covid relief talks.