Trump should start co-operating with Biden on transition, says Republican Pennsylvania senator

Trump’s campaign has filed a lawsuit to stop certification of election results in Pennsylvania

Senator Patrick Toomey, seen here walking off the Senate floor in October (REUTERS)

A Republican senator from the swing state at the centre of Donald Trump’s legal battles over the US election has urged the president to begin the process of a transition of power to Joe Biden.

Pat Toomey is a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, which proved to be the deciding state in the election count as its 20 electoral colleges were projected for Mr Biden on Saturday, and with them the presidency.  

"We're on a path it looks likely Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States. It's not 100 per cent certain but it is quite likely. So I think a transition process ought to begin," said Mr Toomey on Tuesday.

However, in an interview with Pittsburgh's Action News 4, the senator also noted that “if it turns out that the unlikely scenario actually comes about and it turns out President Trump is determined to have won this election after all, then the transition, of course, becomes moot, and it expires and it evaporates."  

Mr Toomey, who has already announced that he won’t run for re-election to the Senate in 2022, said “clearly, Joe Biden has a narrow lead in the remaining states that he needs to get to 270 or more – most likely more – electoral college votes” but noted that “the process isn't entirely finished, and a legitimate process is one that goes to the end.”  

The process, Mr Toomey stated, could include a recount and going to court to decide any dispute about the ballots. 

Last week, as results were still being tallied, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit seeking to stop counting of ballots in Pennsylvania – a move that the state’s governor Tom Wolf, who is a Democrat, described as “simply wrong.” 

On Monday, Trump’s campaign filed another lawsuit to stop the certification of election results in Pennsylvania, where Mr Biden received about 46,000 more votes than the president.

In his interview, Mr Toomey also said he thinks the Covid-19 pandemic “is going to be behind us soon”.  

“I hope and I'm confident it will be. And I think it would be wise for Pennsylvania to return to the ways we've been casting votes for 240 years prior to this election,” he said, referring to the future of mail-in voting.

But the senator clarified that it will be the legislature and governor of the state who will make any such decision on the future of the voting process in the state.