TRANSCRIPT: Schumer Remarks At Press Conference With Speaker Pelosi

Washington, D.C.— Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today at a press conference spoke about the importance of coming together to find a solution to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Republicans’ failure to recognize the results of the election. A transcript can be found below:

This is a moment of great national challenge. COVID-19 is surging, small businesses are shuttering, families are struggling, people continue to lose jobs, and not gain new ones. We just had a divisive and hard-fought presidential election.

But instead of working to pull the country back together so that we can fight our common enemy, COVID-19, Republicans in Congress are spreading conspiracy theories, denying reality, and poisoning the well of our democracy.

The Republicans should stop their shenanigans about an election that President Trump has already lost and focus their attention on the immediate issue at hand: providing relief to a country living through the COVID health and economic crises.

When it comes to the election, Congressional Republicans, don't have the evidence. They don't have the proof. They don't have anything. Neither does the President. Congressional Republicans are deliberately casting doubt on our elections for no other reason but fear of Donald Trump. These Republicans are all auditioning for Profiles in Cowardice.

So this morning I have a very simple message for Senate Republicans: the election is over. It wasn't close. President Trump lost. Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next vice president to the United States.

Senate Republicans: stop denying reality. Stop deliberately and recklessly sowing doubt about our democratic process and start focusing on COVID.

The Republican refusal to deal with reality is hurting our country in many ways: fighting the health crisis of COVID, improving our economy and not compromising on national security.

It's time to move on and get to work for the American people. And I want to be very clear with the American people. The election is not in doubt, this is nothing more than a temper tantrum by Republicans, nothing more than a pathetic, political performance for an audience of one: President Donald John Trump.

This is nothing, Republicans, like the 2000 election, when the presidential election came down to one state and the difference between candidates was only 537 votes. Joe Biden's victory in the Electoral College has been secured by several states where tens of thousands of votes separate the candidates. Joe Biden leads in Wisconsin by 20,000, in Pennsylvania 50,000, Michigan 146,000.

Those are the facts. Vice President Biden has won. Nothing Republicans or President Trump can do will change that.

All over the country, legal claims by the President and his Republican allies are being laughed out of court.

The New York Times called election officials from both parties in every state in the country, not one, not one reported any evidence of fraud or irregularities. These frivolous lawsuits have less than a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding.

So let me speak directly to my Republican colleagues in the Senate. Once again, Joe Biden has won. Now move on and work with us to solve the COVID crisis.

Let us bring the country together and get things done. Every day, as the Speaker mentioned, hundreds of thousands are getting sick, thousands are dying. We don't have time for these kinds of games. The American people are waiting for relief from the COVID virus, but Republicans refuse to take comprehensive action that meets the needs of the country.

The Heroes Act, passed in the House, does meet this moment. It doesn't pick and choose who we're going to help during the greatest health and economic crises in decades. It's laser-focused on health care issues that are at the heart of this pandemic. The Heroes Act does something that's vital: it strengthens Medicaid and improves access to health care coverage, support for hospitals. At a time when COVID is raging, health care money, Medicaid expansion should be at the very top of the list.

These are the issues we should be discussing and debating, and the Heroes Act should be the starting point, not an emaciated bill that prioritizes protections for corporations and considers the needs of American families as an afterthought.

Every day that goes by without the Republican Party acknowledging and accepting the results of this election is another day Americans’ faith in their wonderful democracy declines. The longer Senate Republicans play the sad game is the longer they are denying working families much needed relief from the COVID health and economic crises.

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