WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced President Donald Trump and Republicans on Thursday for sowing doubt about and refusing to accept the presidential election results.
"The election is not in doubt," Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a joint news conference with Pelosi, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill. "This is nothing more than a temper tantrum by Republicans, nothing more than a pathetic political performance for an audience of one: President Donald John Trump."
Schumer said the results of the election cannot be compared to those of the 2000 election, which came down to Florida and a difference of several hundred votes.
"Joe Biden's victory in the Electoral College has been secured by several states, where tens of thousands of votes separate the candidates," he said. "Joe Biden leads Wisconsin by 20,000, Pennsylvania ... 50,000, Michigan ... 146,000. That's the facts. Biden's won. Nothing Republicans or Trump can do will change that."
Republicans need to "stop deliberately and recklessly sowing doubt about our democratic process" and denying reality and accept that Biden is the president-elect, Schumer said. He said Trump's "frivolous lawsuits have less than a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding."
He and Pelosi pleaded with Republicans to get back to the negotiating table, instead, to craft another Covid-19 relief package. Pelosi said Republicans must stop focusing on denying Biden's victory and shift their attention to the worsening pandemic.
"He's going to be just fine in the transition," she said of Biden. "It's most unfortunate that the Republicans have decided that they will not respect the will of the people. And let me just say it looks like the house is burning down and they just refuse to throw water on it."
Trump continues to reject the results of the election, which media organizations, including NBC News, called Saturday after Biden surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Trump has not conceded, and he has baselessly claimed that voter fraud occurred.
