(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Indiana Senator Mike Braun says there’s no rush for President Trump to concede defeat to President-elect Joe Biden.
Braun isn’t going as far as Trump himself and some congressional Republicans, who have claimed without evidence that there was vote fraud. But Braun says with the election so close, Trump’s attempts to challenge results in several states deserve time to play out. He says that’s what’s needed for everyone to accept the results.
Biden leads in Pennsylvania by less than a percentage point, but by about the same percentage and 3,000 more votes than Trump won the state by in 2016 — and the gap is widening. His 49,000-vote margin in Michigan nearly five times Trump’s that year.
Biden’s win in Wisconsin is about 2,000 votes closer than Trump’s four years ago, though votes are still being counted. Biden’s two narrowest leads are in Arizona, where some media outlets still haven’t declared him the winner, and Georgia, where all sides agree the outcome is still unsettled. Even if he loses both, the three Rust Belt states are enough to give the former vice president the necessary 270 electoral votes.
Four years ago, Trump was recognized as president-elect even while recount requests in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania played out. At the time, he blasted the recounts as “ridiculous” and said the results “should be accepted instead of being challenged and abused.”
The General Services Administration, which oversees the $6 million dollars in the federal budget for the presidential transition, has so far refused to release the money to Biden’s transition team. Biden also doesn’t get access to classified briefings until the GSA recognizes him as the president-elect.
Braun argues giving Trump a chance to make his legal case will strengthen the process, not weaken it, though he says the process needs to be quick, not “belabored.”
