Trump Warns Republicans Who Didn't Back US Election Fraud Claims
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US President Donald Trump lashed out at some Republican lawmakers Thursday on social media for not embracing his baseless allegations of election fraud.
Trump has refused to concede the election to US President-elect Joe Biden, who bested Trump in both the popular and electoral vote. Trump has repeatedly claimed that widespread election manipulation was to blame for his apparent loss. While some GOP members, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have acknowledged Biden's incoming administration, others have rallied behind Trump's allegations. On Thursday, Trump gave a warning to GOP senators he deemed to be disloyal.
"I saved at least 8 Republican Senators, including Mitch, from losing in the last Rigged (for President) Election," Trump tweeted Thursday. "Now they (almost all) sit back and watch me fight against a crooked and vicious foe, the Radical Left Democrats. I will NEVER FORGET!"
McConnell finally acknowledged Biden's victory in December during a floor speech in the Senate.
"Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result," McConnell said, "but our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken."
Trump decried McConnell in a December tweet. "Mitch, 75,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot)," Trump wrote. "Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!"
Although Trump's legal team filed multiple lawsuits seeking to overturn the election results, a majority of those lawsuits were dismissed. Some GOP senators have said they would challenge the Congressional count of the electoral votes, slated to take place in January, hoping to secure a second term for Trump.
South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune said on Monday that the expected GOP challenge to the election would "go down like a shot dog" in the Senate, Newsweek reported.
"I just don't think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be," Thune told CNN.
The following day, Trump described Thune as "Mitch's boy" and a "RINO (Republican in Name Only)" in a post on Twitter.
"Republicans in the Senate so quickly forget," Trump wrote. "Right now they would be down 8 seats without my backing them in the last Election. RINO John Thune, 'Mitch's boy', should just let it play out. South Dakota doesn't like weakness. He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!"
While some GOP members of the House of Representatives have said they would challenge the electoral vote in January, a representative must be joined by a US Senator in order to formally contend the results. Whether a Senator will step forward to submit a challenge remains unclear.
According to the AP, Biden won the Electoral College with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 electoral votes. A candidate must receive at least 270 electoral votes to be considered the winner of the presidential election.
