Will electors’ vote finally make Republicans move on? Biden aides hope so

President-elect Joe Biden’s aides have a message for President Trump and his supporters: It’s long past time to move on.

With the electoral college set to formally elect Biden as president Monday, his aides say they hope Republicans will consider their own long-term interests — and the country’s — by accepting Trump’s defeat, focusing their attention on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and staving off more economic misery.

Republicans by and large have stood by Trump as he’s made unsubstantiated claims of a rigged election, and they show no signs that they’ll give Biden the usual post-inauguration honeymoon period. Biden will come to power with a narrowly divided Senate — next month’s runoff elections in Georgia will decide who controls the chamber — and a thinned Democratic majority in the House.

But in their attempt to nudge Republicans to cooperate, Biden aides are pointing to strong approval numbers for the president-elect, who racked up a record 81 million votes, and an electorate worn down by the pandemic. Mike Donilon, a senior Biden advisor, said Americans were looking for Democrats and Republicans to get in sync.

“The agenda that the president-elect is putting forward is very much at the forefront of what people want in their lives,” Donilon said. “So I think the case is going to be that it’s going to be in the interest of the country — it’s going to be in their own self-interest — to get on board and not to get in the way.”

In making the case for a mandate, Biden’s team points to his retaking Rust Belt states that helped put Trump in the White House four years ago as well as wins in Arizona and Georgia — firsts for a Democratic presidential candidate since the 1990s. Biden also won the popular vote by more than 7 million people, powered by strong showings among women, people of color and independents.

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Voters cast their ballots for president more than a month ago, but the votes that matter will be cast Monday when the electoral college meets.

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Aides to Biden, who is scheduled to deliver an address Monday evening after the electoral college votes, say a turn away from a contentious election and to governing is easier said than done. The spotlight on the electoral college vote is heightened this year because Trump has refused to concede the election and is pushing forward with baseless allegations of fraud.

“We have won so many times, at this point, in so many different ways. We’re just excited to keep on winning,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s deputy chief of staff, shrugging off Trump’s challenges. Monday “obviously is a big day as it takes on a little bit more import than maybe traditionally it does.”

On Saturday, thousands of Trump supporters descended on Washington to air grievances about the president’s loss. They skirmished with anti-Trump demonstrators, leading to dozens of arrests, several stabbings and injuries to police officers in disturbances hours after the rallies.

After losing dozens of legal challenges on the state and federal level, Trump is expected to push forward with new litigation this week. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that he expects five more lawsuits at the state level.

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Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on election “irregularities.” Johnson on Sunday questioned why Congress wasn’t informed that the taxes of Biden’s son Hunter were under federal investigation during Trump’s impeachment trial last year.

“I’m sympathetic for keeping investigations confidential unless there’s an indictment,” Johnson said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “But when you’re talking about investigations within the political realm, particularly one that would have affected the impeachment trial of the sitting U.S. president in the U.S. Senate, that should have been relevant information — the fact that they had Hunter Biden’s computer that had all these emails back in December 2019.”

The younger Biden said in a statement last week that he just recently learned that he was under investigation. He also said he committed no wrongdoing.

O’Malley Dillon downplayed the notion that the investigation could hamper Biden’s ability to pursue his agenda.

“The president-elect himself has said this is not about his family or Donald Trump’s family,” she said. “It is about the American people’s families. And I think we’re going to continue to stay focused on the issues that are impacting their daily lives.”