GOP committee chief says Republicans will accept election results

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Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections in the United States will accept the results of the election after they let the process play out, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on Sunday on CNN.

"Listen, you should have a recount. You should have a canvass, and it'll go to the courts. And then everybody should accept the results," McDaniel said in response to a question about whether all of her party's candidates should accept the election results.

"We'll let the process play out and then we'll accept the results," she added after being asked to comment about Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson refusing to commit to accepting the midterm results.

Wisconsin is one of the most divided states in the country, with Democrats seeking to defeat Johnson, accusing him of being involved in Donald Trump's attempt to overturn President Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election.

Running against Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor, Johnson accuses his opponent of being soft on crime and pushing to defund the police, seeking to keep his seat in the Senate after he was elected in 2010.

Check out: US midterms: Why does Wisconsin matter?

Republicans are currently seeking to take back the House of Representatives as the Democrats have quite a thin majority.

Meanwhile, some Republican candidates have been casting doubt on how legitimate the upcoming elections will be in a scenario similar to the 2020 elections.

Jonhson, running for a third term, refused to say he would accept the election result when asked to commit to that, telling reporters in Wisconsin: "Let's see how this plays out." 

"I sure hope I can, but I can't predict what the Democrats might have planned," he said.

McDaniel said that once his avenues are exhausted, Johnson will accept the results.

In an article by the political columnist and former US correspondent, Gilles Paris, entitled "US midterms: The new 'voting integrity' militias", French newspaper Le Monde said that "Armed militias 'defending' the vote are the unexpected new element in the 2022 midterm elections."

Gilles Paris noted how dangerous this is, explaining that "It took a judge in Arizona, a ground zero for election denialism, to restate the obvious. Taking photos or videos of voters dropping their ballot at a voting box, posting information about them online, and openly carrying firearms and wearing body armor while patrolling around those voting places is more about intimidation than about protecting this civic duty.

McDaniel defended the practice, calling on them to abide by the law, "and if they don't, then they shouldn't be allowed to do that."

McDaniel also expects the GOP to take back both Congress chambers in the wake of the midterms, saying that if Republicans take Congress again, Biden would have a mandate from Americans to work with them.

"If we win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, 'we want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle and solve the problems that we are dealing with'," she said. "It would be interesting to see if President Biden does that."