Sen. Lamar Alexander says that Trump should put ‘the country first’ and accept Biden’s election win

Sen. Lamar Alexander expressed in an interview that aired on Sunday that President Donald Trump should put “the country first” and congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his election win.

The retiring three-term Tennessee Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that once the Electoral College meets on December 14 to ratify the results in each state and Washington DC, the president should accept Biden’s victory.

“The states have counted, certified their votes,” he said. “The courts have resolved the disputes. It looks very much like the electors will vote for Joe Biden. And when they do, I hope that he puts the country first — I mean, the president — that he takes pride in his considerable accomplishments, that he congratulates the president-elect and he helps him get off to a good start, especially in the middle of this pandemic.”

Alexander, a former Tennessee governor and former US Secretary of Education under then-President George H.W. Bush, is among the few Republicans in Washington who have publicly admitted that Biden won the presidential election.

Last week, 126 House Republicans signed on to a amicus brief backing the Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court swiftly dismissed the lawsuit on December 11, handing a new blow to Trump and his campaign team, who so far have grudgingly refused to confront the election loss.

In a “Fox & Friends” interview that aired Sunday, Trump said that he wasn’t giving up his fight to contest the results.

“It’s not over,” he said. “We keep going and we’re going to continue to go forward.”

Alexander, on the other hand, said that a peaceful transfer of power is essential for a democracy.

“I think the most important thing for our country, as George Washington said when it was founded, is not the first election, but the second election, the orderly transfer of power,” he said. “I think anything that detracts from that is not good for our democracy.”

The senator also criticized the stream of lawsuits that the Trump campaign has filed since the November election, questioning the basis of the litigation.

“I don’t think his lawyers have a right to go to court with specious lawsuits with no evidence,” he said.