Some GOP accept Biden win, others do not want Trump to concede

Democrats and some Republicans on Sunday urged the nation to accept Joe Biden as the rightful president-elect, but allies of President Donald Trump said the president should not formally concede until his lawsuits have concluded.

"Every legal challenge should be heard," Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House minority leader, said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "Then, and only then, will Americans decide who won."

Biden is leading in the popular vote count by more than 4 million votes and has 290 Electoral College votes, according to Associated Press projections. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to claim victory.

Former Republican President George W. Bush said Sunday that he had congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their win, saying he knows Biden to be a "good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country." But Trump has the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges until they are adjudicated, he said.

"The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear," Bush said in a statement.

Trump has sought to make unsupported allegations of voter fraud in the weeks before the election and in the days after, including through tweets Sunday morning.

Some Congressional Republicans, silent Saturday after Biden was declared president-elect, echoed claims that the results were uncertain because of Trump's active legal challenges.

Analysts have said Trump’s lawsuits face a slim chance of changing the election’s outcome because they would apply to a small number of votes, and some legal challenges have already been dismissed.

"The president should not concede," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on "Sunday Morning Futures."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Fox he also expects a "recount in several states," although Georgia is currently the only state expected to have one.

"Trump still has a path to victory, and that’s to count every legal vote cast," Cruz said on "Sunday Morning Futures."

But several Republicans said the party was starting to accept the outcome: Biden won.

Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he was hopeful Republicans' "narrative may change" once the final votes are tallied. He wants Trump to acknowledge he will have to concede, "even if it may take a few more days for cooler heads to prevail and to convince him that it's the right thing to do for the nation,"

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the Republican nominee for president in 2012, congratulated Biden on the win. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Romney said, "I think we get behind the new president."

Romney, who had to concede his loss in 2012 to then-president Barack Obama, said he did not expect Trump to act in the same way as previous candidates for president.

"He is who he is. And he has a relatively relaxed relationship with the truth. He's going to keep on fighting until the very end," Romney said.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, said Republicans who refuse to accept Biden's win are making "a mistake."

"First of all, it is the exact disunity that was just rejected, right?" Cuomo said of the reason Trump lost. "Now you're going to stretch to find some legal case and further deteriorate trust in the democratic institution of this nation."

Trump’s legal team sought to cast doubt on the election results Sunday by repeating unsubstantiated allegations of widespread conspiracy and voting fraud.

Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and Trump's attorney, said he expected to file lawsuits in five to 10 states this week alleging civil rights violations, an unfair election, and equal protection violations.

Giuliani did not produce evidence of his claims besides saying he has heard from witnesses. Giuliani, Graham, Cruz and Sidney Powell, another member of Trump’s legal team, cited individual cases of voting irregularities, such as a technical glitch in a Michigan county that was later rectified, and one Pennsylvania postal worker’s affidavit claiming the Erie County postmaster planned to backdate mail-in ballots. Analysts have said that such examples, if they had any effect on the race, are too small-scale to affect the overall results.

Giuliani alleged Republican observers were barred from observing ballot counting centers in Pennsylvania, allegations that the team’s own legal filings have contradicted. He also alleged, without evidence, that votes were incorrectly backdated and that some ballots were cast by dead people.

"We have enough to change Pennsylvania," Guiliani said, when asked whether the lawsuits would change the results.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who will chair the upcoming inauguration, said that while it was a "close election" and that Trump deserves a chance to go through the legal process, it "seems unlikely that any changes could be big enough to make a difference."

"It's time for the president's lawyers to present the facts and then it's time for those facts to speak for themselves," Blunt said on ABC's "This Week."

By Rachelle Blidner

rachelle.blidner@newsday.com,scott.eidler@newsday.com@rachelleblidner,

Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.