McConnell acknowledges Biden's election victory

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Ending his long silence on the outcome of the presidential election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victories Tuesday from the Senate floor.

MCCONNELL: "Today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He's devoted himself to public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time."

Since the Electoral College confirmed Biden's victory on Monday, several other senior Republican senators finally acknowledged publicly that he will be the next president, abandoning support for Trump’s effort to try and reverse the election outcome. That includes Trump loyalist Senator Lindsey Graham, as well as Ohio’s Rob Portman, Missouri’s Roy Blunt and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Thune, said "it's time for everybody to move on" and that any effort to try to overturn the result when Congress counts the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 – an idea floated by Trump – is "not going anywhere."

Senator John Cornyn of Texas agreed, saying such an effort would be soundly defeated in the Republican-controlled senate, adding: "There comes a time when you have to realize that, despite your best efforts, you’ve been unsuccessful, that’s sort of the nature of these elections. You’ve got to have a winner. You’ve got to have a loser."

Trump said in November that he would leave the White House if the electoral college confirmed Biden's win.

TRUMP: "Certainly I will. Certainly I will, and you know that."

But Trump kept up his baseless claims on Tuesday, posting a series of tweets about voting machines and that there was "tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud."

Meanwhile, one international holdout finally recognized Biden's election victory on Tuesday: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said in a statement to Biden: "For my part, I am ready for interaction and contact with you," adding that he wished "the president-elect every success."