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Brief
The Lead
Pa.’s Toomey: Trump has ‘exhausted all plausible legal options’ with Pa. lawsuit loss; congratulates Biden, Harris
With his loss in federal court in Williamsport on Saturday night, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., says President Donald Trump has hit the legal end of the road in his efforts to undo the efforts of the Nov. 3 general election.
“With [Saturday’s] decision by Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, to dismiss the Trump campaign’s lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania,” Toomey said in a statement released by his office on Saturday night.
The Lehigh Valley Republican announced this fall that he will not seek re-election or run for another office when his term expires in 2022. With his statement, he is one of a handful of Capitol Hill Republicans who have spoken out publicly against Trump’s increasingly desperate crusade to hang onto power.
Trump will appeal Pa. federal court decision dismissing attempt to block Pa. vote certification
On Saturday, Brann lacerated Trump’s attempts to block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results, calling it a “Frankenstein’s Monster,” of “unhinged” legal claims that sought to disenfranchise millions of voters statewide.
Brann’s ruling “follows a series of procedural losses for President Trump’s campaign. On Friday, the state of Georgia certified the victory of Joe Biden after a hand recount of paper ballots confirmed the conclusion of the initial electronic count. Michigan lawmakers rejected the apparent attempt by President Trump to thwart the will of Michigan voters and select an illegitimate slate of electoral college electors,” Toomey’s statement reads. “These developments, together with the outcomes in the rest of the nation, confirm that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th President of the United States.”
Toomey’s statement goes on to “congratulate President-elect [Joe] Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country.”
Toomey continued:
“Unsurprisingly, I have significant policy disagreements with the President-elect. However, as I have done throughout my career, I will seek to work across the aisle with him and his administration, especially on those areas where we may agree, such as continuing our efforts to combat COVID-19, breaking down barriers to expanding trade, supporting the men and women of our armed forces, and keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.
“Make no mistake about it, I am deeply disappointed that President Trump and Vice President Pence were not re-elected. I endorsed the president and voted for him. During his four years in office, his administration achieved much for the American people. The tax relief and regulatory overhauls that President Trump enacted with Republicans in Congress produced the strongest economy of my adult life. He also should be applauded for forging historic peace agreements in the Middle East, facilitating the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine through Operation Warp Speed, appointing three outstanding Supreme Court justices, and keeping America safe by neutralizing ISIS and killing terrorists like Qasem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“To ensure that he is remembered for these outstanding accomplishments, and to help unify our country, President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process.”
In a tweet posted Saturday night, Trump vowed to appeal the decision and he ripped into Toomey and Brann.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330374020613758977?s=20
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