Romney predicts Trump will eventually ‘accept the inevitable’ that Biden won election

Romney says country should ‘get behind’ president-elect but GOP leaders have not congratulated him

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Donald Trump, despite having a "relaxed relationship with the truth", will eventually "accept the inevitable" — that Joe Biden is the president-elect.

"The president doesn't have a choice. People think, 'Can we remove him from office?' You don't have to remove him from office," Mr Romney said on CNN. "If he does not win on a legitimate basis, he ceases to be the president when Joe Biden is sworn in."

“You’re not gonna change the nature of President Trump in these last days, apparently, of his presidency,” he said. “He is who he is. And he has a relatively relaxed relationship with the truth and so he’s gonna keep on fighting until the very end.”

Mr Trump has not spoken publicly since the 2020 race was called for Mr Biden after he was declared the winner in Pennsylvania. But in a statement, he said he intends to mount an aggressive legal fight, arguing there was widespread voter fraud. 

But he and his campaign have yet to produce any evidence.

“But don’t expect him to go quietly into the night,” Romney added, referring to the president he voted to remove from office. “That's not how he operates.”

In a separate interview on Fox, Mr Romney urged Mr Trump to proceed with caution.

"I think it is appropriate for the president to make sure that the vote count has been done properly, to carry out recounts where it’s a very close contest, if there are irregularities alleged pursue those and to follow every legal option he has. That’s what you’d expect of a president in a setting like this," Romney said. "At the same time, I think it’s important to choose one’s words carefully because the eyes of our children are upon us, the eyes of the world are upon us."

As Washington waits for that potential proof and judges to rule on a dozen or so Trump lawsuits, even some GOP lawmakers are moving on.

"I think we get behind the new president, unless for some reason that's overturned, we get behind the new president and wish him the very best," Mr Romney said on “State of the Union.”

Others, however, are silent.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for instance, have not congratulated the president-elect.

Mr Romney echoed Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Friday remarks in calling for Congress to begin the new session with a coronavirus relief package.

"We begin, I think, with immediate need to get relief to families and small businesses that are suffering as a result of the economic downturn associated with Covid," he said. "That is something we are going to have to do and we are going to have do it in a bipartisan basis."