GOP senator: Trump ‘may not have been defeated’

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said on Tuesday that President Trump “may not have been defeated” in the 2020 presidential election. 

Blunt, who was reelected policy chairman for the Senate GOP, said the election showed that not only do candidates matter, but “what you’re for also matters.” He added that “virtually every predictor” of the outcome of the 2020 race was wrong.

“The president wasn’t defeated by huge numbers. In fact, he may not have been defeated at all,” Blunt said. 

Pre-election polling results found President-elect Joe Biden leading the Republican incumbent by large margins in key battlegrounds, with some surveys showing the former vice president leading Trump by upwards of 5 points or more. 

However, the race in several battleground states between the president and Biden was close. In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Biden won by less than a percentage point. However, he carried the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada by 3 or more points.

And in states that have not yet been called, such as Georgia and Arizona, Biden leads Trump by thin margins of less than a percentage point as well. However, Biden leads in each of those states by over 10,000 votes. 

Biden is currently leading the president in the popular vote by 3 percentage points, according to The New York Times election tracker.

The Democrat was projected to win the 2020 election on Saturday, but the president has not conceded defeat. His reelection campaign has already mounted legal challenges in several states contesting the results of the election. 

Multiple Republicans have backed the president’s efforts, refusing to get ahead of the legal challenges and shooting down questions on whether he should concede. 

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was reelected to his position as Senate majority leader on Tuesday, said that Trump exercising reelection options “should not be alarming,” adding that the Electoral College will determine the winner after battleground states certify their results. 

“Until the Electoral College votes, anyone who is running for office can exhaust concerns about counting in any court. … That’s not unusual,” McConnell said. 

Blunt on Tuesday added that Republicans gained seats in the House, and projected that the GOP would hold its majority in the senate. He also touted new GOP support from African Americans and Latino voters.

Blunt said there are “incredible opportunities” for Republicans, noting that voters want to see the economic gains and low unemployment from the first three years of the Trump administration continue. 

“Voters defied every predictor when they came to the polling place and said this is what we want to see more of,” Blunt said.