Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that President Trump maintains the right to contest the projected results of the presidential election.
He also said he did not want to be lectured by Democratic lawmakers, who very quickly accepted Joe Biden as the winner, considering their actions in 2016.
It took many Democrats three years to recognize Trump as their president and some never did.
When asked when he would declare a winner, McConnell answered: “Until the Electoral College votes, anyone who is running for office can exhaust concerns in counting in any court of appropriate jurisdiction.”
“It’s not unusual and should not be alarming,” he continued via Fox News.
“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,” he said, echoing the constitutional process of determining a winner.
McConnell’s comments came just one day after he first spoke on the Senate floor about the election result.
“Let’s not have any lectures, no 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 and who insinuated that this one would be illegitimate too if they lost again – only if they lost,” he said Monday.
The Kentucky Republican said Democrats, not Republicans, should be the ones embarrassed.
“The people who push this hysteria could not have any more egg on their faces than they do right now,” he added.
McConnell also said:
The president has every right to look into allegations and to request recounts under the law and, notably, the Constitution gives no role in this process to wealthy media corporations.
The projections and commentary of the press do not get veto power over the legal rights of any citizen, including the president of the United States.