On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., released a message on the 2020 post-election process. Below is a transcript of his remarks:
The legitimacy of our republic requires public confidence in our elections. The fact that 70 percent of Republicans don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair — that should be of concern to everyone. That’s why both sides should support allowing the post-election process provided for in our laws to work, to move forward. Our election laws call for recounts in close elections. They provide candidates the right to contest votes cast in violation of the law. They allow the right to present evidence of fraud, if you have it, to present that evidence in court. And they require meeting specific deadlines for all this, so that a winner can be certified and take office.
Both Democrat and Republican candidates have used these laws themselves. They’ve availed themselves to these rights many times, including in this election. Joe Biden had hired an army of election lawyers to use this very process if he had fallen short in the preliminary results. And therefore, President Trump is well within his legal rights to pursue all these things under these laws now.
Now for those in the media who are angry that Republicans won’t just take their word for it that Biden won — I think you need some self-awareness. You spent four years claiming that Russians hacked the last election. You supported Democrats when they went to court to overturn the governor’s race in Georgia in 2018. And you say nothing when, to this day, they claim that they won that race. And you railed against how dangerous Trump rallies were, but now you seem to have no problem with Biden supporters celebrating in big crowds. So Republicans, I think, have good reason to believe that some of you are just a little biased.
The only way the outcome of this election is going to be widely accepted — which is what we need — is through the post-election process in our law.
