Trump Reacts to McConnell's Dose of Election Reality

Mitch McConnell has spoken, recognizing Joe Biden Tuesday as the next president of the US, and the current president wasn't pleased with the Senate majority leader's concession—so much so that he addressed the subject after midnight on Tuesday. In a tweet accompanying a Daily Mail article titled "MAGA turns on Mitch," President Trump wrote, "Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!" For his part, McConnell doesn't seem inclined to kowtow to Trump's wishes: In a Tuesday call, he warned GOP senators not to join any such last-ditch efforts by House colleagues on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to certify the Electoral College results.

Politico notes McConnell's public acceptance of Biden is all part of a new balancing act: He has to stress to Republican voters they have to refocus and show up in Georgia on Jan. 5 to vote in the two runoff Senate elections there, all while not putting himself at odds with Trump and his supporters. It also sets the stage for what CNN says will be a "crucial and fascinating" relationship between McConnell and the president-elect. Axios even has a new nickname for McConnell: "Mitch the Muscle," illustrating how McConnell is about to displace Trump "as the dominant day-to-day Republican powerbroker on Capitol Hill." "He is the obstacle to—and facilitator of—progress," a longtime associate says. Axios adds that McConnell "played [the long game], and won. We're about to see an epic next round." (More President Trump stories.)