Sen. Chris Coons says Republicans are privately congratulating Biden for his win

Republican senators are almost universally ignoring President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Behind the scenes, it's apparently a different story.

In a Tuesday CNN appearance, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who worked closely with Biden during the 2020 race, said it was time for Republicans to acknowledge Biden's win and start the presidential transition. But so far, Coons sees "little evidence of voter fraud in key states" President Trump would need to flip the election, and "little evidence of any Republicans standing up to the president" and accepting a loss.

Only four GOP senators have publicly acknowledged Biden's win. But privately, Republican senators "call me to say 'congratulations, please convey my well wishes to the president-elect, but I can't say that publicly yet,'" Coons described. Coons is now urging those senators to "do the right thing and to help the president accept reality" so the transition can get started as soon as possible.

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Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Ben Sasse (Neb.), and Mitt Romney (Utah) are so far the only GOP senators to publicly congratulate Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris.