Republican Lisa Murkowski, the senior senator from Alaska, has issued a strong condemnation of President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to flip the results of the general election in court.
Without implicating Trump directly, she also strongly denounced the alleged efforts of the commander-in-chief and/or his allies to strong-arm state and local officials into influencing the outcome in his favor.
Her statement came in the form of posts on various social media channels, including Twitter , on Sunday and further assessed that the time has come for the current administration to facilitate a formal transition of the executive branch to President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and their staff.
“As states wrap up the 2020 election and certify the results, it is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that we respect the integrity of the electoral process and uphold Americans’ faith in our electoral system,” she wrote. “Each state has worked to ensure a free and fair elections process. President Trump has had the opportunity to litigate his claims, and the courts have thus far found them without merit.”
“A pressure campaign on state legislators to influence the electoral outcome is not only unprecedented but inconsistent with our democratic process. It is time to begin the full and formal transition.”
As relayed by USA Today , Trump met with Michigan lawmakers on Friday in a session that hadn’t been planned as an advocacy meeting, per White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. However, other administration aides have reportedly indicated that the president has mused about convincing state-level GOP legislators to send pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College in states where Biden won.
Murkowski’s statements came on the same day that former New Jersey governor, Republican lobbyist and Trump advisor Chris Christie referred to the ill-fated courthouse wrangling of the commander-in-chief’s legal team as a “national embarrassment” while appearing on ABC News’ This Week . During the segment, host George Stephanopoulos noted that those efforts had resulted in 34 cases being lost or thrown out.
On Saturday, one such case in Pennsylvania was dismissed with prejudice by U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann. Over the course of his 37-page order, as logged by the non-profit Court Listener , Brann took the Trump team to task for angling to discard millions of legally cast votes. He further assessed that the court had been presented arguments based on pure speculation without any legal basis.
Murkowski previously broke with what had been the silent majority in her party shortly after the election by congratulating Biden and Harris for their win.
