NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says it’s “not clear” who won the presidential election, leading the state’s Republican elected officials in full-throated support of President Donald Trump, whose legal battles to overturn an apparently decisive presidential victory by Democrat Joe Biden are just beginning.
Biden is leading, with 76.6 million votes to 71.7 million for Trump in the popular vote, and 290 to 214 in the Electoral College. Although The Associated Press and other news organizations have projected that there is no way mathematically for ongoing vote counting and certification to reverse the result, Trump has not conceded and is waging a legal battle in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and elsewhere over issues such as access for his supporters to watch ballot counting.
“I think it’s a function of recognizing that this country has a process for elections, especially very closely contested elections,” Lee told reporters on Tuesday. “And we need to let that process play out. And the president, we have one president at a time, and the president has every right to pursue legal challenges. We have states that are in the process of recounts.”
Both U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, and U.S. Sen.-elect Bill Hagerty have urged Republicans to financially support the president in his legal efforts.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, an appointed Republican, joined a group of fellow Republican state attorneys general on Monday in filing an “amicus curiae” or “friend of the court” brief siding with Trump in the Pennsylvania challenge.