Biden Joins Battle for US Senate As Top Trump Ally Finally Accepts Win

By Staff, Agencies

US President-elect Joe Biden threw his weight into the Democratic battle for control of the US Senate on Tuesday, as his White House win was finally acknowledged by top Republicans and holdout foreign leaders.

Biden flew into Georgia -- a southern state he won in an upset against outgoing President Donald Trump -- to host a rally for two Democratic candidates in runoff races that will determine the Senate's balance of power.

"Honk for your next United States senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock," Biden told the crowd at the drive-in event in Atlanta -- urging voters to turn out in force on January 5.

"Send me these two men, and we will control the Senate!"

One day after the Electoral College affirmed Biden's victory, attention shifted to the looming Senate battle -- and to the shape of the incoming administration, as Biden also announced he had nominated Pete Buttigieg, a former Indiana mayor and presidential rival, as secretary of transportation.

And while Trump still refuses to concede -- continuing to tweet baseless allegations of mass fraud that have been rejected in dozens of lawsuits -- top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell finally broke his silence with a message to the president: it's over.

"The Electoral College has spoken. So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden," McConnell said on the Senate floor, adding that Americans can also "take pride" that they will have their first female vice president in Kamala Harris.

Biden told reporters before flying to Georgia that he had a "good" phone conversation with McConnell, a longtime Senate colleague.

"I told him that while we disagree on a lot of things, there are things we can work together on," Biden said.