Key McConnell ally: Biden should get access to transition resources

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Friday that President-elect Joe Biden should be given access to transition resources, something he currently doesn’t have because the General Services Administration hasn’t certified him as the winner of the presidential election.

“If there is any chance whatsoever that Joe Biden will be the next president, and it looks like he has a very good chance, the Trump Administration should provide the Biden team with all transition materials, resources, and meetings necessary,” Alexander, a longtime ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said in a statement.

Alexander added that the need to share information with Biden’s team “especially should be true” on the plan to distribute an eventual vaccine for the coronavirus. Two companies have said they have developed vaccines that are more than 90 percent effective, though they both still need approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Several GOP senators have called on Biden to get access to transition resources, and in particular intelligence briefings, but only a handful have congratulated him on winning the presidential election. No GOP senator has called on Trump to concede, as they’ve largely stuck closely to him on the election despite recent policy and personnel fights. 

Alexander, in the statement, didn’t directly acknowledge Biden’s election victory, where he’s projected to get 306 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 232, but he did say there was a “very good chance” that Biden will be president-elect.

The Associated Press and other national news organizations called the race for Biden nearly two weeks ago. Biden is leading Trump in several key battleground states, and Trump’s legal challenges are largely falling short. States are expected to certify their results in a matter of days.

But he said that he hoped the loser would “put the country first.”

“My hope is that the loser of this presidential election will follow Al Gore’s example, put the country first, congratulate the winner and help him to a good beginning of the new term,” he said. “The prompt and orderly transfer or reaffirmation of immense power after a presidential election is the most enduring symbol of our democracy.”

Alexander’s statement comes as Trump and his legal team are stepping up their efforts to try to reverse the outcome of the election. 

Comments made by the campaign’s legal team during a press conference on Thursday sparked backlash from Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). Meanwhile Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called out Trump directly, saying that he had “now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election.”

“It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president,” Romney said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Alexander didn’t directly address comments from the president’s legal team or Trump’s decision to invite some of Michigan’s top Republicans to the White House. Instead, he said that recounts and legal challenges are “not unprecedented and should reassure Americans that election results are valid.”

Alexander made similar comments to the Knoxville News Sentinel in an interview that took place Thursday but was published Friday morning. 

In his interview with the Tennessee publication, Alexander indicated that he had not seen instances of widespread voter fraud, which has been claimed by Trump.

“The states have the responsibility of conducting the election, counting the votes and recounting the votes if necessary. And the courts have the responsibility for looking to see if there are any irregularities that should overturn the result. And if the state authorities tell me that the election is a fair election then I’m going to accept their decision,” Alexander said.