Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (D-CA) walked onto the Senate floor amid ill-at-ease maskless Republican senators with all of the aplomb of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) with his infamous thumbs-down vote saving Obamacare. She was there to give the deciding vote against the out-of-bounds Federal Reserve board nominee Judy Shelton, according to NPR. Republicans were uneasy.
Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) was the only Republican to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ win. The rest of the Republican senators milled about as if they were boys on their first date and did not know what to do with their hands.
Leaving a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing Tuesday afternoon, the vice president-elect gave reporters a few words about Donald Trump claiming victory. She said, according to The Newsweek magazine:
‘I think that we want to make sure that we are all focused on the priorities of the moment and the day, which includes addressing one of the major crises that we have faced as a country, which is COVID, and everything that has resulted from it. The American people want leaders that respect our democracy and our democratic process.’
A handful of the Republican senators appeared to congratulate her, in spite of going along with Trump and refusing to acknowledge Biden-Harris. Awkward.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), ever following the power trail, patted her back and gave her a fist bump. He told reporters:
‘If it works out, congratulations.’
Senator James Lankford (R-TX) has publically expressed some cautious advances toward the two Democrats. He said:
‘The election’s not settled. You can spin it however you want to, but if someone walks right up to you, you say, “Hello, congratulations.”‘
Even earlier, he said “[We] don’t have a declared president-elect yet:”
‘At the end of the day, we’re waiting on December 14 when everything has to be certified. We don’t know for sure who the victor is.’
Ever the dutiful minion doing Trump’s bidding, Graham earlier told reporters there were just two possibilities in which he would personally consider Biden as president-elect:
‘When Trump concedes, or the court cases have been dismissed and the states certified.’
A number of the publicly silent senators privately admitted that Trump should give the Biden administration access to classified intelligence briefings. These were the only other Republicans’ responses to Harris:
- ‘Marco Rubio (R-FL) has referred to Biden as “president-elect,”
- James Risch (R-ID) said this will be his “second transition” that he’s experienced from one party to another.
- John Cornyn (R-TX) said he hasn’t “seen anything that would change the outcome.”
- Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) gave Harris an elbow tap, “[It] looks like it will be [Biden.]’
- Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) offered a fist bump.’
Rounds said that the GOP would be focusing on the two remaining Senate runoff races in Georgia. The Democrats need both seats to take the Senate. CNN indicated that Rounds said:
‘That’s where our focus is at. I think the president—he’s got a lot of supporters out there that want to make sure that he doesn’t give up and that he makes sure that this election is safe.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.