Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday called President Trump’s denial of election results and refusal to participate in a transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden’s team a “disgraceful” move by an American president.
“Trump will have the distinction of doing more than any person in the history of this country in undermining American democracy,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Trump has refused to concede to Biden after the 2020 presidential election was called more than one week ago. The president’s campaign has unleashed a torrent of lawsuits in battleground states in which Trump lost, arguing that unproven widespread election fraud led to Biden’s victory.
“The idea that he continues to tell his supporters that the only reason he may have lost this election is because of fraud is an absolutely disgraceful, un-American thing to do and I would just hope to God that he has the decency in him to man-up and say, ‘you know what, we fought hard, we lost the election, good luck to Joe Biden, I love America,’” Sanders said on Sunday.
Thousands of Trump supporters descended on Washington, D.C. on Saturday to protest the election results. Biden is currently projected to win 290 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 232, according to the most recent tally by The Associated Press.
Sanders, who lost bids for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 and 2020, also said on Sunday that Trump not allowing his administration to participate in the transition process, including preventing Biden from receiving official intelligence briefings and keeping millions in taxpayers dollars from being spent on transition resources, is unbecoming for anyone who has led the White House.
“The fact that he’s not even cooperating in the transition, the fact that he continues to deny reality, continue to suggest that Biden has illegally won the election is beyond belief in terms of behavior for an American president,” Sanders said.