New GOP Senator banned from attending orientation

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is currently trying to stop a Republican senator-elect from attending the upcoming Senate orientation. 

This comes, according to Fox News, after Dave McCormick has been declared the winner of an important U.S. Senate seat for the swing state of Pennsylvania.

Despite the fact that the race has been called for McCormick, Schumer has chosen not to invite McCormick to the Senate orientation that will be held this week.

Several senators are now trying to get Schumer to change his mind.

Here's what is going on:

Schumer is trying to claim that it would be unfair to invite McCormick to the orientation because there are still many outstanding ballots in McCormick election race.

"Two sources with knowledge confirmed to Fox News Digital that McCormick was not invited to orientation, despite having been projected by the Associated Press to win the Pennsylvania Senate race," Fox reports.

The outlet adds, "When reached by Fox News Digital, a Schumer spokesperson said in a statement, 'With over 100,000 ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania, the race has not been decided. As is custom, we will invite the winner once the votes are counted.'"

One has to wonder whether Schumer would have done the same thing had McCormick's Democratic rival won the race.

The latest

For what it is worth, with 98.57% of the votes counted, McCormick has a 49.01% to 48.43% lead on his rival, Bob Casey. That's about a 70,000-vote lead.

Casey, for his part, has not conceded the race. He is still holding on to hope that the remaining votes can swing things in his favor.

Over the weekend, a spokesperson for Casey said:

Each day, counties across the Commonwealth are confirming there are more ballots that need to be counted. We know there are more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted including tens of thousands of provisional ballots in counties favorable to Senator Casey, and the McCormick campaign has acknowledged these provisional ballots could impact the outcome of the election while pursuing unsuccessful lawsuits to get them thrown out. Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and as state officials have made clear, counties across Pennsylvania need more time to tabulate remaining votes.

Republicans respond

Suffice it to say that many Republican members of the U.S. Senate are not happy about this situation.

U.S. Mike Lee (R-UT) has even offered to "personally escort" McCormick to the orientation.

It remains unclear how this situation is going to play out.