WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has not acknowledged Joe Biden as president-elect, said on Tuesday he does not expect an interrupted transition from the administration of Republican President Donald Trump, who is challenging Biden’s election victory in the courts.
“I don’t think we’re going to have an interrupted transition to whoever is the next administration,” the Republican McConnell told reporters.
“I think we ought to quit all the hand-wringing and not act like this is extraordinary. We’re going to get through this period and we’ll swear in the winner on January 20th, 2021, just like we have every four years since 1793.”
McConnell also brushed off a question about whether he was indulging Trump by allowing the president to air charges of election fraud without offering evidence, saying he would let the presidential election go through “the various stages that it goes through under the Constitution.”
“There will be, apparently, litigation. Those cases will be decided. And then the Electoral College will meet. And then we’ll have the inauguration. But I am going to concentrate on what we are trying to do here in the remainder of this Congress,” McConnell said.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Peter Cooney)
