WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Major Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a powerful speech on the Senate floor this week regarding the 2020 election:
“Last week, record numbers of Americans exercised the right which generations risked everything to hand on to us.
“I want to spend a few minutes this morning talking about what we saw last week, where we are now, and where our great country will go from here.
“There is one aspect of last week that has gotten lost that I want to single out at the start.
“By every indication, the 2020 election appears to have been free from meaningful foreign interference. There is no suggestion that our foreign adversaries were allowed to undermine the integrity of this process.
“According to the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration, ‘we have no evidence any foreign adversary was capable of preventing Americans from voting or changing vote tallies.’
“And General Paul Nakasone, the head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, reported Tuesday night, quote, ‘the actions we’ve taken against adversaries… have ensured they’re not going to interfere in our elections.’
“The Trump Administration and the Senate spent four years supporting the state and local election authorities on the front lines.
“New tools and information-sharing partnerships. Unprecedented coordination. Hundreds of millions in new funding. New, painful consequences for bad actors like Russia that interfere.
“The absence of any reports of foreign interference is a ringing endorsement of our bipartisan work. And it slams the door on the embarrassing, irresponsible rhetoric that some Washington Democrats spent four years broadcasting.
“Too many voices tried to talk down our progress, urged Americans not to have confidence, and smeared anyone as unpatriotic who opposed far-left proposals to rewrite election laws.
“Well, the people who pushed this hysteria could not have more egg on their face than they do now.
“None of their demands became law. The Speaker of the House did not get to personally rewrite election law.
“And yet, because of the sensible bipartisan steps that some of us championed, our defenses and countermeasures proved to be in radically better shape than in 2016.
“So let’s talk about where we are now.
“According to preliminary results, voters across the nation elected and re-elected Republican Senators to a degree that stunned prognosticators.
“Likewise, the American people seem to have reacted to House Democrats’ radicalism and obstruction by shrinking the Speaker’s majority and electing more Republicans there.
“And then there is the presidential race.
“Obviously, no states have yet certified their election results. We have at least one or two states that are already on track for a recount. And I believe the President may have legal challenges underway in at least five states.
“The core principle here is not complicated. In the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted; any illegal ballots must not be; the process should be transparent or observable by all sides, and the courts are here to work through concerns.
“Our institutions are built for this. We have the system in place to consider concerns. And President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.
“Twenty years ago, when Florida came down to a very thin margin, we saw Vice President Gore exhaust the legal system and wait to concede until December.
“More recently, weeks after the media had ‘called’ President Bush’s re-election in 2004, Democrats baselessly disputed Ohio’s electors and delayed the process in Congress.
“The 2016 election saw recounts or legal challenges in several states.
“If any major irregularities occurred this time, of a magnitude that would affect the outcome, then every single American should want them to be brought to light. And if Democrats feel confident they have not occurred, they should have no reason to fear any extra scrutiny.
“We have the tools and institutions we need to address any concerns. The President has every right to look into allegations and request recounts under law.
“And notably the Constitution gives no role in this process to wealthy media corporations.
“The projections and commentary of the press do not get veto power over the legal rights of any citizen, including the President.
“More broadly, let’s have no lectures about how the President should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election.
“And who insinuated this one would be illegitimate, too, if they lost again.
“Let’s have no lectures on this subject from that contingent.
“In late August, Secretary Hillary Clinton said, quote, ‘Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances… I think this is going to drag out, and… he will win if we don’t give an inch.’
