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McConnell: Trump 'within his rights' to fight election results

The Kentucky senator said he did not want lectures from those who 'spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election.'

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Donald Trump is "100% within his rights" to fight the results of the presidential election during his remarks on the Senate floor Monday.

"Obviously, no states have yet certified their election results," McConnell said. "We have at least one or two states that are already on track for a recount. And I believe the President may have legal challenges underway in at least five states."

McConnell said presidential candidate Al Gore "exhausted the legal system" and waiting to concede until December in what is considered the closest presidential election in U.S. history. On Dec. 12, the Supreme Court ruled that Florida's ruling requiring a recount of ballots was unconstitutional, ending a recount and resulting in Bush's win.

"More broadly, let’s have no lectures about how the President should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election," McConnell said.

Kentucky's senior senator said the process will eventually end and "in January, the winner of this election will place his hand on a Bible."

In the same remarks, McConnell said voters "stunned" pollsters by electing or reelecting more Republicans to the Senate and House.

"Likewise, the American people seem to have reacted to House Democrats’ radicalism and obstruction by shrinking the Speaker’s majority and electing more Republicans there," McConnell said.

McConnell said that while the results may disappoint tens of millions of Americans, people are "still blessed to live in the greatest nation the world has ever seen."

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