McConnell Stands Firm with Trump: Democrats Spent ‘Four Years Refusing to Accept the Validity of the Last Election’

US President Donald Trump and US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell make their way to
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty
Hannah Knudsen

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) affirmed on Monday that President Trump is well within his rights to look into allegations of voter fraud and explore his legal options moving forward in the contested presidential election and reminded Democrats that they spent four years “refusing to accept the validity of the last election.”

To the establishment media’s apparent dismay, McConnell is not deeming the presidential election over, nor is he urging Trump to concede.

“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,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday, blasting the projections and “commentary of the press.”

“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,” he continued.

“Our institutions are actually built for this,” the majority leader said. “We have the system in place to consider concerns and President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”

McConnell also asked for his Democrat counterparts to spare him of any lectures, given their endless crusade of questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election.

He said:

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.

McConnell, who was reelected to lead his caucus, previewed his support of the president on Friday, stressing that “every legal vote should be counted” and “any illegally-submitted ballots must not”:

Attorney General William Barr (R) met with McConnell on Monday prior to authorizing the Department of Justice to probe voting irregularities in the presidential election. While Barr acknowledged that states bear the primary responsibility, he said that the DOJ has “an obligation to ensure that federal elections are conducted in such a way that the American people can have full confidence in their electoral process and their government.”

Other GOP leaders have expressed strong support for the president and his battle over election integrity, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), as well as Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Doug Collins (R-GA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Steve Scalise (R-LA).

President Trump has maintained an optimistic tone on social media, declaring on Tuesday morning that “WE WILL WIN”:

“WE ARE MAKING BIG PROGRESS. RESULTS START TO COME IN NEXT WEEK. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he said, later adding, “BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE”:

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