Trump should concede and start transition: GOP’s Toomey

Bloomberg

Republican Senator Pat Toomey said President Donald Trump “has exhausted all plausible legal options” in Pennsylvania, and that it was time to concede that Joe Biden won the presidential election.
“President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process,” Toomey said in a lengthy statement after a Trump campaign lawsuit that challenged the Pennsylvania vote was thrown out. The campaign has vowed to appeal.
The Pennsylvania senator noted that the judge in the case, Matthew Brann, was “a longtime conservative Republican,” even though he was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Brann called the legal claims brought by Trump a “Frankenstein’s Monster.”
The “ruling follows a series of procedural losses for President Trump’s campaign,” Toomey said, including a hand recount confirming Trump lost Georgia. He also cited Michigan, where, he said, “lawmakers rejected the apparent attempt by President Trump to thwart the will of Michigan voters and select an illegitimate slate of electoral college electors.” Toomey warned that Trump’s actions now risk overshadowing what the Republican senator described as “outstanding accomplishments” over the past four years.
“Joe Biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th President of the United States,” said Toomey, who has announced he will not run for re-election in 2022. “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory.”
Toomey’s comments were rebuked by Trump on Twitter, who said “Senator Pat ‘No Tariffs’ Toomey” was “no friend of mine.” Earlier, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, chair of the House Republican Conference, said it was time for Trump to respect “the sanctity of our electoral process.” If Trump cannot prove the claims of widespread fraud that he and his lawyers have made, “he should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Cheney said in a statement reported by Politico.
Her comment also attracted a critical tweet from Trump.
Only a few other GOP senators have distanced themselves from Trump’s attempts to reverse or discredit the outcome of the election. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah issued the strongest rebuke, saying that by pressuring state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election, “it is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting president.”

Putin not ready to recognise Joe Biden as US president
Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he’s ready to work with any US leader, but still isn’t ready to recognise the election victory of Joe Biden.
“We will work with anyone who has the confidence of the American people,” Putin said on Russian state TV on Sunday. “But that confidence can only be given to a candidate whose victory has been recognised by the opposing party, or after the results are confirmed in a legitimate, legal way.”
The comments are some of the most detailed since the election from Putin, one of a dwindling number of leaders who haven’t recognised Biden as the next US head of state. Russia, accused by US intelligence agencies of intervening in 2016 to help get Trump elected, has been wary of Biden, fearing an increase in sanctions pressure and clashes over human rights.
Putin described the Kremlin’s decision not to congratulate Biden as “a formality” with no ulterior motives. When asked if the move could damage US-Russia relations, he said: “there’s nothing to damage, they’re already ruined.”