Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and pleaded with Republicans privately not to join an effort by House members to throw out the results. “The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Tuesday.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times Breaking with President Trump’s drive to overturn his election loss, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Tuesday congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his victory and began a campaign to keep fellow Republicans from joining a doomed last-ditch effort to reverse the outcome in Congress. Although Mr. McConnell waited until weeks after Mr. Biden was declared the winner to recognize the outcome, his actions were a clear bid by the majority leader, who is the most powerful Republican in Congress, to put an end to his party’s attempts to sow doubt about the election. He was also trying to stave off a messy partisan spectacle on the floor of the House that could divide Republicans at the start of the new Congress, forcing them to choose between showing loyalty to Mr. Trump and protecting the sanctity of the electoral process. “Many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20,” Mr. McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. “The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.” A short time later, on a private call with Senate Republicans, Mr. McConnell and his top deputies pleaded with their colleagues not to join members of the House in objecting to the election results on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to ratify the Electoral College’s decision, according to three people familiar with the conversation, who described it on the condition of anonymity. A small group of House members, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, plans to use a constitutional process to object to the inclusion of five key battleground states that day. There is almost no chance they will succeed. But if they could persuade at least one senator to join them, they could force a vote on the matter, transforming a typically perfunctory session into a bitter last stand for Mr. Trump. So far, no senator has committed to joining them. In seeking to prevent anyone from doing so, Mr. McConnell argued that a challenge would force senators to go on the record either defying Mr. Trump or rejecting the will of the voters, potentially harming those running for election in 2022. He dispatched his top deputy, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, to lobby lawmakers one by one. In normal times, such a call would have drawn little notice. But Mr. Trump’s push to deny his loss has created a charged political moment for Republicans, spotlighting rifts within the party and placing Mr. McConnell in a particularly dicey position. Polls suggest a clear majority of Republicans believe Mr. Trump’s fabrication that the election was fraudulent, and they are likely to follow the president’s words, not those of Mr. McConnell. Meanwhile, many of the president’s allies in the House continue to support his challenges to the results, with more than 60 percent of them signing on last week to a legal brief endorsing the failed effort by Texas to overturn results in key battleground states. The House’s top leaders were mostly silent on the question on Tuesday, and their aides did not respond to questions about Mr. Biden’s victory. Mr. Trump himself showed no signs of backing down, repeating his false allegations on Twitter just after Mr. McConnell spoke: “tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud.” Mr. Trump also shared a news article about Mr. Brooks’s efforts, raising the possibility that he could begin pressuring members of the party to join in, stoking an even bigger fight in the weeks ahead. Moving to head off potential backlash, Mr. McConnell told reporters pressing him to rebuke Mr. Trump’s rhetoric that he did not have “any advice” for Mr. Trump. Earlier in the day before congratulating Mr. Biden, he had used his speech on the Senate floor to lavish praise on the president’s record on foreign and domestic policy. The remarks were a decisive shift for Mr. McConnell. They came only after members of his leadership team in the Senate — and even the chamber’s chaplain — began softening the ground by congratulating Mr. Biden on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Though he never repeated them, Mr. McConnell had allowed Mr. Trump’s false allegations of election fraud and fantastical claims that he had been the true winner to circulate unchecked for more than a month, defending the president’s right to challenge the election outcome in court. Allies insisted privately that he would ultimately honor the results, but did not want to stoke a year-end conflict that could hurt the party’s chances in two Georgia Senate runoffs and imperil must-pass legislation. That calculus changed late Monday, after electors across the country cast their ballots for Mr. Biden, cementing his 306 to 232 Electoral College victory. By Tuesday morning, Mr. McConnell and his leadership team were openly acknowledging the results and creating the political space for other Republicans to begin belatedly recognizing Mr. Biden as the winner. The Senate leader also spoke by phone with Mr. Biden, apparently for the first time since his former Senate colleague won the presidency more than five weeks ago. https://www.era-leader.com/node/52989 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52992 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52993 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52995 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52996 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52997 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52998 https://www.era-leader.com/node/52999 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53001 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53002 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53003 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53004 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53006 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53007 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53008 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53009 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53011 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53012 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53013 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53015 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53016 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53017 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53018 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53020 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53021 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53022 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53024 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53025 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53026 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53028 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53029 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53030 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53032 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53033 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53034 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53036 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53037 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53038 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53040 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53041 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53042 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53043 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53044 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53046 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53047 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53048 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53050 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53051 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53052 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53054 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53055 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53056 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53057 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53058 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53059 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53060 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53061 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53062 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53063 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53064 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53066 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53067 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53068 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53069 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53070 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53071 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53072 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53073 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53074 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53075 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53076 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53078 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53079 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53080 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53081 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53082 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53083 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53084 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53085 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53086 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53087 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53088 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53089 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53090 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53092 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53093 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53094 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53096 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53097 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53099 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53100 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53101 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53102 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53103 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53105 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53107 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53109 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53110 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53113 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53115 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53116 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53117 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53119 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53120 https://www.era-leader.com/node/53121 https://onlinegdb.com/RHY00JGsB https://paiza.io/projects/TTZWpQOerFzGCU7SBBnJSg?language=php https://steemkr.com/newsbreaking/@cucucahyati/mcconnell-sets-stage-for-new-face-off-with-biden-after-delivering-blow-to-trump-s-election-fantasy http://webhitlist.com/forum/topics/mcconnell-looks-out-for-the-interests-of-his-caucus https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/harris-offers-olive-branch “I called to thank him for the congratulations, told him although we disagree on a lot of things, there’s things we can work together on,” Mr. Biden told reporters, adding that it was a “good conversation.”