(NEXSTAR) – One of President Donald Trump’s most reliable allies in the United States Senate says the president’s time in office is ending, despite Trump’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him.
During debate on the Senate floor – which was interrupted by a mob invasion of the nation’s capitol – Sen. Lindsey Graham said the time to challenge the election of President-elect Joe Biden is over and that a commission to examine election integrity is not likely to go anywhere.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, called it a “uniquely bad idea to delay this election,” referencing the commission idea proposed by his fellow South Carolina Republican, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.
Graham said, “Count me out. Enough is enough.”
Graham called Biden the “legitimate president of the United States,” and told colleagues definitively that “it is over” and the Biden-Harris administration would begin on January 20th.
Earlier Wednesday, supporters of Trump breached the U.S. Capitol, forcing a lockdown of the lawmakers and staff inside. Trump has claimed widespread voter fraud to explain away his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden, though election officials have said there wasn’t any.
Graham said that “if you’re a conservative,” the idea that Vice President Mike Pence could reverse the results of the election, as President Donald Trump had urged him to do, was “the most offensive concept in the world.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.