Biden says GOP ‘mildly intimidated’ by Trump

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday said he believes the Republican Party has for the most part been “mildly intimidated” by President Trump as a majority of GOP lawmakers refuse to publicly acknowledge that Biden will be the next president.

“I think that the whole Republican Party has been put in a position, with a few notable exceptions, of being mildly intimidated by the sitting president. But there’s only one president at a time,” Biden said after remarks on the Affordable Care Act in Delaware.

Biden’s remarks come as numerous prominent Republicans have entertained Trump’s unproven claims that voter fraud may have swung the result in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, even though nobody on the president’s team has provided evidence that is the case.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been adamant Trump is entitled to pursue legal challenges. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Tuesday that Trump “may not have been defeated at all,” and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a news conference that the State Department was prepared for a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

The general refusal among Republicans to accept the election results has been marked by a few exceptions. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have each put out statements recognizing Biden as president-elect.

“I think there are enough Republicans who have already spoken out,” Biden said Tuesday. “And I think there will be many more. Not many more — there will be a larger number once the election is declared and I’m sworn in, to be able to get things done.”

Asked how he can be sure Republicans will work with him once in office if they won’t acknowledge he is president-elect, Biden was confident without elaborating.

“They will,” he said. “They will.”