Support for President Donald Trump’s fight against the election results is waning fast. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, has shared a new op-ed in which he says that he hopes that “all of us, as Americans, regardless of who we supported in the campaign, will be willing to accept the result because a thorough process was followed and the final vote count was clear.” In stark contrast to Trump’s own perspective, Portman adds that “there is no evidence as of now of any widespread fraud or irregularities that would change the result in any state.” In other words, Joe Biden is on his way to the White House — although Portman didn’t use those exact words.
Portman was a co-chair of the Ohio wing of the Trump campaign — he’s not some kind of rogue among Republicans. He’s a member of the party’s core group of Senate Republicans who have supported Donald Trump’s agenda — and he now admonishes those involved in election fights to “expeditiously resolve any outstanding questions and move forward.”
‘There were instances of fraud and irregularities in this election, as there have been in every election. It is good that those have been exposed and any fraud or other wrongdoing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but there is no evidence as of now of any widespread fraud or irregularities that would change the result in any state… Based on all the information currently available, neither the final lawful vote counts nor the recounts have led to a different outcome in any state. In other words, the initial determination showing Joe Biden with enough electoral votes to win has not changed.’
States across the country have been certifying their election results, no matter Trump’s complaints. Georgia, which Biden won, has officially certified its results, although the Trump campaign recently requested a post-certification recount — although there’s zero meaningful evidence suggesting that this recount will swing the state to Trump. The president and his allies have demanded signature re-checks in the state for mail-in ballots, but all mail-in ballot signatures were already verified, and meaningfully re-checking these signatures is physically impossible because ballots and the envelopes in which they arrived (which contained signatures) were separated immediately after the initial round of verification.
Portman said in his new op-ed that he believes “that there is no more sacred constitutional process in our great democracy than the orderly transfer of power after a presidential election.” To that end, he also says that he believes that the federal General Services Administration should officially confirm Biden as the president-elect, which they’ve so far refused to do, despite no meaningful paths to a Trump victory. The agency’s refusal to confirm Biden’s status has blocked the Biden-Harris transition team from certain government resources.
