As the recount of the presidential election in Wisconsin rounds out its fifth day, former House Speaker Paul Ryan says “legal challenges to the outcome and the attacks on our voting system really need to stop.”
“The outcome will not be changed, and it will only serve to undermine our faith in our system of government, our faith in our democracy,” Ryan said at Bank of America’s virtual European Credit Conference.
The Janesville Republican referenced his own loss to President-elect Joe Biden in 2012, when both men were on the presidential ticket as vice-presidential candidates.
“I know firsthand what it’s like to lose a national election, and it is a terrible feeling,” he said. “But I think it’s really important that we’re clear about this, which is the mere fact that the president’s lawyers throw these sort of baseless conspiracy theories out at press conferences but offer no evidence of these in court tells you that there is not the kind of widespread voter fraud or systemic voter fraud that would be required to overturn the outcome of this election.”
Trump campaign officials overseeing the recounts in both Milwaukee and Dane counties have indicated the process is likely to end in litigation.
Ryan’s comments come after the General Services Administration last night ascertained Biden as the apparent winner of the election, clearing the way for the formal transition process to begin by giving Biden’s team access to federal resources and agencies.
The agency’s administrator, Emily Murphy, had come under increasing pressure to sign off on the transition from Dems, national security and public health experts and a handful of GOP lawmakers.
In a letter to Biden, Murphy wrote she came to the decision to authorize the transition “independently, based on the law and available facts.”
“I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official–including
those who work at the White House or GSA–with regard to the substance or timing of my decision,” she wrote.
Ahead of that move, WisPolitics.com reached out to the offices of all five returning GOP members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation and Congressman-elect Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, for comment on whether the Trump administration should continue to delay the transition. None responded to those requests for comment.
See Murphy’s letter:
https://www.wispolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Murphy-Biden-letter.pdf
