A
handful of Republicans, including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell,
expressed broad support for a peaceful transfer of power after President Trump
refused on Wednesday to commit to accepting the results of November’s election.
But they carefully avoided any direct criticism of the president.
“The
winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th,” Mr.
McConnell wrote on Twitter early
Thursday. “There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every
four years since 1792.”
“We’re
going to have to see what happens,” is how Mr. Trump responded when asked to
guarantee a peaceful transfer of power after the election. No president in
modern memory has said what he said.
But
members of Mr. Trump’s party treated the comment less like a historic threat to
a bedrock democratic principle than as just another news-cycle provocation they
hoped to dodge — and even the critics who emerged were careful not to call the
president out by name.
Senator
Mitt Romney of Utah, who this week declared his support for Mr. Trump’s
decision to fast-track a new nominee for the Supreme Court, was first out with
a criticism, as he has often been when Mr. Trump has made inflammatory
comments.
“Fundamental
to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is
Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional
guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable,” Mr. Romney wrote on Twitter Wednesday night.
Representative
Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the third-ranking House Republican, took a similar line, tweeting: “The peaceful transfer
of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of
our Republic. America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will
uphold that oath.”
Senator
Marco Rubio of Florida, who has moderated his criticism of the president after
lashing Mr. Trump during the 2016 Republican primary debates, also avoided referring to him directly in his response on
Thursday.
“As we
have done for over two centuries we will have a legitimate & fair election.
It may take longer than usual to know the outcome, but it will be a valid one
And at noon on Jan. 20, 2021 we will peacefully swear in the President,” wrote
Mr. Rubio, who is also supporting Mr. Trump’s approach to filling the Supreme
Court vacancy.
So did
Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, who tweeted,
“Regardless of how divided our country is right now, when elections are over
and winners are declared, we must all commit ourselves to the Constitution and
accept the results.”
Former
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who has been helping Vice President Mike Pence
prepare for the upcoming debates, struck a defiant note.
“Smart candidates never concede anything before an election. They focus on what
it takes to win,” he wrote. “Media could ask @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris if
they plan to concede on election night or drag it out for months.” Mr. Trump’s
remarks, though, were not about whether he would be willing to concede on
election night. They were about whether he would step aside if the election
showed that he lost.
There
was scant mention of Mr. Trump’s comments on the president’s favorite network,
Fox News, on Wednesday, with the hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura
Ingraham focusing on other topics.
Mr.
Trump’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., for his part, seemed to reflect on
Democrats’ ambivalence about responding to what many view as another attempt by
the president to divert attention from his failure to contain the coronavirus.
Asked
about the president’s remarks late Wednesday, Mr. Biden told reporters, “What
country are we in?”
“I’m
being facetious,” Mr. Biden added. “Look, he says the most irrational things. I
don’t know what to say.”