Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump is continuing his legal effort against this month’s presidential election result. But various reports have indicated that Republican lawmakers are increasingly accepting that President-Elect Joe Biden will take office in January 2021. Republican senators are now looking at how they can best use Trump’s last 45 or so days in office. Trump’s legal challenges are falling apart with lawyers representing his campaign admitting in court they have no evidence of the widespread electoral fraud the president claims robbed him of a second term. Senior advisers including daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner have reportedly been warning the president that his legal challenges are extremely unlikely to change the result.

Others like sons Eric and Donald Jr., plus attorney Rudy Giuliani are said to be urging him to fight on. President Trump himself has reportedly accepted in private that he has lost to Biden, in spite of his frenzied and angry Twitter output. The GOP lawmakers that have supported him for four years are now looking at what more they can get from the outgoing administration. Two GOP senators informed a news outlet that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urged lawmakers to make the most of Trump’s remaining term. Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Meadows informed Republicans basically just that we got about 45 days left of the president’s term.

The chief of staff said the White House wanted to be sure senators had ideas of things that the White House could and should do during that period of time. Still, Meadows hinted that he still hopes for an unlikely Trump victory. Cornyn said, “But he did, I have to be honest with you, he did say whether it’s 45 days or four years and 45 days”. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey summed up what many lawmakers are said to feel about the president’s legal challenges in private. He said, “Let me just say, I don’t think they have a strong case”. But few are breaking with the Trump campaign line, fearing retribution from Republican voters, with whom the president remains popular. Senate eyes have turned to January when two run-off races in Georgia will decide which party controls the Senate for the next four years.