The top Republican in the United States Congress on Tuesday recognized the Democratic Party’s Joe Biden for the first time as the winner of the presidential election, a day after the Electoral College voted to confirm his victory.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, finally referred to Biden as the president-elect, following more than a month of sitting President Donald Trump’s continual attempts to overturn his defeat in the election held in early November.

“The Electoral College has spoken, so today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20.”

McConnell also congratulated Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California as the vice president-elect.

He had previously declined to acknowledge Biden’s win, saying that Trump was entitled to pursue his claims in court even as most of his cases were being thrown out by judges.

Out of the 538 electoral votes, Biden solidified his win with 306 votes to Trump’s 232.

Although the Electoral College voting is usually considered a pro forma event meant to formalize the election results, this year’s vote had added significance because of Trump’s stubborn refusal to accept the outcome, instead urging legislatures from six battleground states to void his opponent’s win by disqualifying the votes of Biden supporters.

“Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud,” Trump said on Twitter after the Electoral College members cast their votes. “There has never been anything like this in our Country!” As with his previous claims of electoral fraud, Trump failed to provide the evidence.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week rolled back Trump’s efforts to invalidate the election results.

“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Biden said after the Electoral College on Monday cemented his victory. “We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.”

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