Blunt calls Biden President-elect after Electoral College. Other Missouri GOP silent
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt officially recognized Joe Biden’s status as president-elect following Monday’s Electoral College vote.
Blunt, a former Missouri secretary of state, is the first Republican member of the Missouri delegation to explicitly acknowledge Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump. It comes more than a month after the November election and after Biden formally crossed the 270 threshold in Monday’s Electoral College vote.
“We’ve now gone through the constitutional process and the electors have voted, so there’s a president-elect,” Blunt told the Senate press pool Monday.
Blunt expanded on these comments to The Kansas City Star, explaining that he would work with Biden’s team in his capacity as the chairman of the bipartisan committee overseeing the January 20 inauguration.
“While the electoral process moves toward a final conclusion, planning for the Inaugural Ceremonies at the Capitol must continue,” Blunt said. “I will, as Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, work with President-elect Biden and his Presidential Inaugural Committee to plan for the swearing-in ceremony on January 20.”
Blunt, the No. 4 Republican in the Senate, said Trump still “continues to have the right to avail himself of every legal option available to his campaign,” but he said the Electoral College had “fulfilled its Constitutional role in determining the president and vice president-elect.”
Blunt’s acknowledgment is important both because of his role in organizing the inauguration and his status as a member of Senate GOP leadership.
The House and Senate will meet January 6 to vote on accepting the Electoral College results. If members of both chambers object to seating a state’s electors, it’ll set off a procedural battle that could delay the process.
But this dramatic scenario is unlikely to change the results because Democrats control the House.
Other Republicans in Missouri’s congressional delegation have rebuffed requests for comments on the Electoral College vote, including Blunt’s Senate colleague, Sen. Josh Hawley, a potential contender for the presidency in 2024.
Missouri GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s office declined to comment on the matter. Missouri GOP Rep. Sam Graves’ office did not respond to an inquiry.
Hartzler and Graves were among the 126 House Republicans to sign onto an amicus brief in support of Texas’ lawsuit, which sought to overturn the presidential election in four swing states that went for Biden. Missouri GOP Reps. Billy Long, Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer and Jason Smith also signed the brief.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit Friday.
