Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he does not expect an interrupted transition from the administration of President Donald Trump to that of Joe Biden.
“I don’t think we’re going to have an interrupted transition to whoever is the next administration,” McConnell told reporters, according to Reuters.
“I think we ought to quit all the hand-wringing and not act like this is extraordinary. We’re going to get through this period and we’ll swear in the winner on January 20th, 2021, just like we have every four years since 1793,” he added.
McConnell brushed off a question about whether he was indulging Trump by allowing the President to air charges of election fraud, saying he would let the presidential election go through “the various stages that it goes through under the Constitution.”
“There will be, apparently, litigation. Those cases will be decided. And then the Electoral College will meet. And then we’ll have the inauguration. But I am going to concentrate on what we are trying to do here in the remainder of this Congress,” McConnell said.
On Monday, McConnell declined to congratulate Joe Biden or recognize him as the president-elect, noting Trump has a right to challenge voting irregularities in court.
Biden on Tuesday called Trump's refusal to cooperate with his transition team "an embarrassment," but stated that it was largely inconsequential to his team's success.
“We’re well underway” with the transition despite the Trump Administration's refusal to work with them, Biden told CNN, adding that the lack of cooperation was “not of much consequence.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that "there will be a smooth transition to our second Trump administration" despite current election results showing Joe Biden as the winner.
"We're going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there'll be electors selected. There's a process. The constitution lays it out pretty clearly," Pompeo said.