by: Kellie Meyer
Posted:
/ Updated:
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Tuesday marks the deadline for states to submit certified election results – narrowing President Donald Trump’s hopes of overturning the 2020 election. But Republicans on Capitol Hill are holding out hope and putting all plans for a Joe Biden presidency on pause.
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday he isn’t ready yet to say who won the 2020 election.
“What I said I would accept is, ultimately, that what states certify legally through their process and the electoral college decides,” Sen. Rubio said. “That’s how our system works.”
Rubio said he’s letting the process play out.
“I do think there are some things that happened in this election that we need to go back and look at,” he said.
The Florida Republican said while his state was prepared for the flood of mail-in ballots this year, many others were not.
“It caused all sorts of delays in the vote-counting process that has undermined the confidence of a significant percentage of the American people in the result,” Rubio said.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing back on planning for a transition to a Biden administration until after the electoral college results are finalized. Democrats say the delays are dangerous.
“We have a centuries-old tradition of a peaceful transfer of power,” Rep. David Price (D-NC) said.
The North Carolina Democrat is encouraging his colleagues to be honest about the results and stand up to President Trump.
“It really is destressing that Republicans won’t call his hand,” Price added.
Rubio said he doesn’t know if President Trump will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
“There’s no requirement in the law that he attend. Certainly the president, he’s not a politician. He doesn’t operate in an orthodox way,” he said.
But Rubio doesn’t expect that day to end the president’s political career.
“If the president chooses to run again in 2024, I think he’ll be the Republican nominee,” Sen. Rubio said. “And I actually think he has a very good chance to win.”
The electoral college will cast their ballots on the president and vice president next week.
