11-13-2020, 10:55 AM
GOP sees Trump's election challenges as likely to fail and urges White House to take steps towards transition
(CNN)Cracks are growing in the GOP defense of President Donald Trump's long-shot effort to overturn the 2020 election outcome, with many top Republicans contending that Joe Biden should immediately get national security briefings, some calling for the official transition process to begin and others are acknowledging that Trump stands little chance at reversing results clearly showing he lost.
Republicans say they are willing to give Trump a chance to make his case in court. But they fully recognize that Trump is losing by margins in key battleground states that make his chances of success in his legal cases extremely grim at best. Many have grown unnerved at his purge of top national security officials. And others are making clear that Trump should concede the race once it's evident that he's lost his court challenges.Some are even willing to now consider Biden "president-elect," a title few Republicans have been willing to say publicly as Trump baselessly claims the election has been rigged.
"Sure," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, said when asked if she considers Biden "president-elect."
While Capito says there's a "process" for legal challenges, she added that she hoped the process would resolve itself quickly -- "inside a week or so."
"It looks like a difficult mountain for the President," she said of his legal case.
Capito is not alone. Many Republicans privately recognize that Biden will soon be President, and they are hoping that Trump will concede the race once it's clear his legal challenges are collapsing -- and once key states have certified the results.
- More -