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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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Set-Aside Alert News analysis:For 21 days of election chaos, Rubio hesitant on Biden victoryIt has been a very tumultuous three weeks in the United States, and the sense of extreme post-election unease has continued as Republican President Donald Trump repeatedly has declared himself the winner of a second term and has refused to concede to Democrat Joe Biden. During this momentous 21-day period, there were events previously unimaginable in U.S. history-- such as when Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani asked a judge to invalidate 6.8 million votes in Pennsylvania. The judge refused. In such moments, democracy felt precarious. The outcry from Democrats and the mainstream media didn’t reach most Republicans. Polls showed that the majority of the GOP believed Trump won the election. Republican senators could have used their influence to stop much of the chaos and reassure the public. The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. stated that the election had been conducted fairly with little or no reports of fraud. But nearly all the GOP senators, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, stayed mostly silent. Rubio offered weak support for the “president-elect” on Nov. 16 in an interview with the Miami Herald, but stopped short of saying Biden’s name with the title. “’Are you saying that Biden is the president-elect now?’ the reporter asked Rubio. ‘Well, ultimately that’s what the results, the preliminary results, seem to indicate,’ Rubio responded. ‘But obviously the president has legal claims in court and will continue to pursue those and if that changes, obviously, it’ll be something we’ll have to deal with.’” A handful of other Republican senators made much more robust statements supporting Biden and the legitimacy of the election. Unlike Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, to name one of those who defended the election results, Rubio did not stand up for principle above party. Rubio instead made remarks with a tinge of partisan grievance on Nov. 18. He said he would not give Biden’s Cabinet nominees the same deference as in past presidencies, because he alleged Democrats were “unfair” to Trump’s nominees four years ago. In 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded the day after the election. The transition was authorized that same day. If, after Jan. 20, Rubio continues as the chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, his prolonged inaction at this time may hamper his relationships with Biden and other Democrats going forward, and that would not be beneficial for small business contractors. The small business panel typically is most effective when acting in a bipartisan manner. That usually has been the case on both the House and Senate small business committees. Rubio even polished his bipartisan credentials a bit when he helped negotiate with Democrats to create the Paycheck Protection Program this year. Attitudes may be changing. With President-elect Biden calling to unify the country politically, lawmakers viewed as hardcore partisans may be left out of the huddle. Time will tell whether Rubio will heed the call. Rubio did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The drama continues Only a handful of elections have brought such high levels of drama, despite the fact that it took less than a week to determine that Biden was the President-elect with 306 electoral votes. But since then, Trump and his allies have broadcast accusations of massive voter fraud far and wide, even though the courts told a different story. Trump and his team made extravagant claims on TV and Twitter, but judges threw out 34 out of 35 of their cases for lack of evidence. The situation became momentous when Trump, failing in the courts, began a campaign of pressuring GOP officials in key swing states. He openly tweeted his goal of overturning the election outright through loopholes in the Electoral College process with the help of the GOP officials in those states. From top Republicans, silence. At presstime, fears of a coup attempt have receded as Trump’s chances of success have shrunk to almost zero. Michigan certified its results on Nov. 23. Democracy appears to be holding. Yet there was--and still is--great danger in Trump’s unfounded accusations. The risk is ongoing severe damage to faith in American elections and democracy. Will America remember this time when people in power failed to speak up?
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