… says ‘we’ve not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome’
UNITED States Attorney-General, William P. Barr, said on Tuesday that the Justice Department had not uncovered voting fraud at a scale that could have affected the results of the presidential election, reaffirming Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win despite President Donald Trump’s claims that he was defrauded.
Barr’s comments, in an interview with The Associated Press, were a prominent repudiation of Mr. Trump’s “baseless” assertions and came days after the president implied that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. might have played a role in an election fraud.
“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Mr. Barr said.
And Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, who has refused to recognize Mr. Trump’s election loss, on Tuesday moved closer to overtly accepting the reality that Mr. Biden would be in the White House next year, while discussing the prospects for more pandemic stimulus in 2021.
“After the first of the year, there is likely to be a discussion about some additional package of some size next year, depending upon what the new administration wants to pursue,” Mr. McConnell said at a news conference.
Taken together, Mr. Barr’s direct declaration and Mr. McConnell’s indirect reference to Mr. Biden’s new administration represent a major, if not unexpected, blow to the president’s postelection effort to change the results from two men who he has often relied on for political cover, the New York Times reports.
Mr. McConnell spoke carefully, leaving open the possibility that Mr. Trump could yet stay in office. At one point, he said, “This government is in place — for sure — for the next month.” At another point, he said that the Trump administration was still in charge for the “next three weeks for sure.”
