President-elect Biden confirms ‘good conversation’ with Senate Leader McConnell

‘We’ve always been straight with one another, and we agreed we’d get together sooner than later’

Joe Biden confirmed he had a “good conversation” with Mitch McConnell after the Senate majority leader recognised the president-elect for the first time since the November election.

“I called him to thank him for the congratulations,” Mr Biden told reporters. “I told him although we disagreed on a lot of things there are things we can work together on.”

Mr McConnell earlier congratulated the president-elect in a speech on the Senate floor, saying the Electoral College “has spoken”.  It broke his six weeks of silence since the election as Donald Trump filed multiple lawsuits to challenge the results.

“I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” Mr McConnell said on Tuesday. “Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result… But our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken.”

Mr McConnell said that the president-elect was no stranger to the Senate, having devoted himself to public service for many years.

Talking to reporters on the tarmac before departing Delaware to campaign in the Georgia runoff elections, Mr Biden referenced that long working relationship with Mr McConnell during his time as both a senator and as vice president in the Obama administration.

“We’ve always been straight with one another, and we agreed we’d get together sooner than later. And I’m looking forward to working with him,” Mr Biden said.

The president-elect said he has been receiving calls from about a dozen other members of Congress following the Electoral College vote.

Mr McConnell has also been calling GOP members urging them not to force the chamber to vote on challenges to the Electoral College count after several House Republicans asked Trump-supporting senators, Rand Paul and Ron Johnson, to challenge electors from battleground states.

One House member and one senator need to sign on to a formal challenge to force each chamber to debate and vote on whether to uphold or dismiss the Electoral College votes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

It’s a “terrible vote” for the GOP, Mr McConnell told his fellow Senate Republicans on a call on Tuesday, Politico’s Jake Sherman reported on Twitter.