Who through their silence, are spreading Donald Trumps absurd false narrative that he won the election. Each of us in this body has sworn an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Stand up for our democracy, to support peaceful transfer of power established there. My colleagues, it is time for every senator to do your sworn duty and stand up the constitution and for our democracy. Make no mistake, january 20, joe biden will be sworn in as the next president of the United States and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as a next Vice President of the United States but that does not mean that what donald trump is doing now is harmless. That does not mean that the silence or acts of complicity of republican senators is harmless. It is downright dangerous for our democracy and our National Security interests. We have enough challenges protecting our democracy from foreign enemies and foreign adversaries who seek every day to undermine faith and confidence in Democratic Institutions here in the United States and other democracies around the world. The last thing we need is for people to attack that confidence from within the United States. This is he doing harm in the shortterm and longterm to our National Security, putting us at risk. In the short term, we are seeing a very dangerous purge of National Security officials at the Defense Department and other places. These are officials with whom i have many policy differences but they are competent, managers. They are qualified individuals and what you are seeing the president do in the throes of his administration is purging those qualified individuals and replacing them with peoples whose only credentials is loyalty to President Trump, replacing competent qualified individuals with political actors. Thats dangerous and anytime, especially dangerous to mess around with the top leadership of our National Security agencies during the transition of power. That is what the 9 11 mission told us and yet, what you are seeing President Trump do is play with matches it comes to our National Security. Tol put personal political peevs against thete National Security interest of the United States. In addition to purging individuals from our National Security agencies, the president ishe prohibiting the governmentf the u. S. Which belongs to the people of the United States in providing daily Intelligence Briefings and other intelligenct briefings to the incoming president , president si elect joe biden. We all know resident trump has been notorious for not being interested in those Intelligence Briefings but i think all of us who know joe biden from the time he served as senator and Vice President , we know he takes these things seriously and he takes threats that might be learned to the Intelligence Briefings seriously. To deny the next president of the United States access to those briefings, which is part of the tradition and rules developed to ensure city transfer and making sure the next president has the information needed on day one, it is outright grossly negligent and it comes to our National Security. It is time for our Senate Republican colleagues to be seeking out speaking out loudly about that. As part of the consequence of the fact that the General Service administration has been unwilling to provide the traditional support for the peaceful transfer of power. This is another gross abuse of theov government, which belongso the people of the United States, not to donald trump. In addition, you have the secretary of state, secretary pompeo instructing the department of state not to pass along messages from foreign leaders to the next president of the United States, president elect joe biden. Again, another gross abuse of power and of course, secretary pompeo undermines the space intranet position in democracy himself when he talked about the fact that we are transitioning to the second trump term. This is the person, the individual is supposed to represent the United States of america overseas. He supposed to stand up for our democracy and yet, here at home, he is undermining faith in that democracy and who does that give comfort to . Our adversaries and enemies abroad. People who want oury democracy o fail. I dont know if our republican colleagues have noticed who has congratulated president elect joe biden and who has not among foreign leaders. Our democratic allies around the world has congratulated the next president of the United States, joe biden. United kingdom, france, germany, canada. The leaders of democratic governments and countries of all acknowledged that a democracy is working and they are recognizing the next president of the United States. Who has refused to congratulate the next president of the United States, joe biden . Vladimir putin. President xi jinping. The leader of north korea. What President Trump is doing and how can colleagues are doing either silence is aiding and abetting these leaders. These guys are smiling. Your authoritarian leader, who want nothing more than to see democracy fail, to see the model failed. These are leaders who often have eitheir own election facade wita pretend to have a free and Fair Election and then it turns out to be 90 for them that they are smiling at what is happening here. I hope our Republican Senate colleagues are looking at theng companies they are keeping among foreign leaders watching us because the leaders of our democratic friends and ally countries have all recognized in the selection and leaders of russia and china and north korea and others who have not. That is the company thats being keptse by so Many Republican senators today. Its going to do ongoing damage to our ability around the world ib the worlds oldest moxie to stand up for interests of leader brady, freedom and democracy. I fear that is not even the most damaging thing is happening as a tsult of this is being perpetrated in the American People. Its undermining the confidence of the American People themselves large numbers of the American People the outcome of this election, feeding this false narrative that somehow donald trump was actually the winner had joe biden was somehow illegitimate. President to be. If you look at the recent polling in the last 48 hours, what you find is that 70 republicans believe this was not a free and Fair Election. Thats two times as many as before the election and thats when donald trump was telling everybody he lost and the election was rigged. We really silenced through encouragement, the idea that because donald trump lost the election that it was rigged . All you have to look at his frivolous claims being made in court around the u. S. In reaction to the claims by judges appointed by democrats and republicans alike. To realize what a charade this is. Joe biden is a candidate and said he wants to bring the country together. He and Kamala Harris want to find a way to bring us together to find common ground. Hes looking for the opportunity to work on both sides of the aisle in the u. S. Senate. And in the house of representatives to address urgent matters before our country. I asked my Republican Senate colleagues, how are you going to take the extended hand of joe biden when youre telling so many of your constituents back at home that this is an illegitimate election . How are you going to do that . What we have seen in the aftermath of this election is scary because we saw so many times over the last four years of our Republican Senate colleagues refuse to stand up the abuse of power in this administration, things the Obama Administration ever thought of doing. They be out there every day client crying foul and abuse of power but everybodyna enabled tt conduct. Now after the election when joe biden is already over 5 million votes ahead in the National Vote and winning the electoral college, youd think this is a etmoment for everybody to come together to get the next president of the United States a chance. I think the scary thing, with this shows is that the Republican Party has become the party of donald trump. I urge my colleagues to think about the consequences feeding into this fraud that donald trump was actually the one who was elected. What you will be saying there to the 72 million americans who voted for donald trump is that he is, in fact, the rightful president and he will bear for ubalso continue to call the shos. Hes doing that now even after hes lost an election so i urge my colleagues to think about what theyre doing each day that goes by that reinforces this false and fraudulent claim, it is harming our democracy. How it is harming our National Security. How its going to impede joe bidens ability to reach out to our republican colleagues not because he doesnt want to, he does but because you will have undermined your ability to do it by telling tens of millions of americans that somehow this was an illegitimate election. I implore my colleagues, the more of this as every hour goes by because every hour the lie continues and persists is another hour your harming the house about democracy and country. Thank you. Mr. President , this summer, senator smith and i introduced the Coronavirus Relief act. This bill would provide muchneeded relief to schoolis district participating in the aid program. Strange feeling due to the pandemic, it cannot come soon enough. Public schools, close district, tribal land another federal property or with students living on these federal properties to participate in the aid program which includes nearly 40 School Districts in the