WASHINGTON: The most powerful Republican in the US Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, congratulated Joe Biden on Tuesday on winning the 2020 election, as did Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Their messages followed the endorsement of Mr Biden’s victory by the 538-member US Electoral College that voted 306-232 to declare him the president-elect.

But Washington has already started preparing for the Jan 6 special joint session of Congress where electoral votes will be recounted, and Mr Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be asked to take oath on Jan. 20 as the country’s new leaders.

The vote ended 40 days of nerve-wrecking uncertainty that followed the Nov 3 election, although Mr Trump is still refusing to accept the results.

“Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud. There has never been anything like this in our Country,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

Senator McConnel, a close Trump-ally, made it known on Tuesday that he was no longer supporting the campaign to overturn election results, as the Electoral College’s vote had removed any doubt about who would be the next president.

“Many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result,” Mr McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. “But the Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”

He also congratulated Senator Kamala Harris of California, referring to her as the vice president-elect. “Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who too is considered a Trump ally, joined other world leaders on Tuesday in congratulating Mr Biden on winning the US presidential election.

In his message, Mr Putin wished Mr Biden “every success,” and expressed confidence that “Russia and the US, which bear special responsibility for global security and stability can, despite the differences, really contribute to solving many problems and challenges that the world is currently facing.”

Mr Biden, who should have addressed his nation as a winner on election night, did so on Monday evening, urging rival to end this “unprecedented assault on our democracy.”

“In America, politicians don’t take power. People grant power to them,” he said. “The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame.”

This had little effect on Mr Trump. “Tremendous problems being found with voting machines. They are so far off it is ridiculous.

Able to take a landslide victory and reduce it to a tight loss. This is not what the USA is all about,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

Mr Trump announced on Monday that he was sacking his attorney general, Bill Barr, who did not endorse his claims of widespread voter-fraud in the 2020 election. The president posted a copy of Mr Barr’s resignation letter on his official Twitter page and wrote: “As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family.”

Mr Biden reminded Mr Trump that his Electoral College tally equaled President Trump’s 2016 victory. “By his own standards, these numbers represented a clear victory then, and I respectfully suggest they do so now,” he said.

Mr Biden also urged his Republican rivals to withdraw their lawsuits, seeking to invalidate his votes in swing states. All six swing states voted for him on Monday, enabling him to equal Mr Trump’s 2016 total.

The electoral vote also had an impact on Capitol Hill where Republican lawmakers were backing President Trump’s refusal to concede defeat.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2020