WASHINGTON — Some Repub­li­cans are break­ing with Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s attempts to false­ly declare vic­to­ry in the elec­tion and halt vote count­ing in Penn­syl­va­nia and oth­er states, leav­ing him with­out key voic­es of sup­port as he con­tin­ues to trail Demo­c­rat Joe Biden in his bid for reelection.

Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, a Trump ally who won reelec­tion Tues­day in Ken­tucky, told reporters that “claim­ing you’ve won the elec­tion is dif­fer­ent from fin­ish­ing the count­ing.” Sen. Mar­co Rubio, a Flori­da Repub­li­can who spoke at a recent Trump cam­paign ral­ly, said in a tweet that “tak­ing days to count legal­ly cast votes is NOT fraud.” And Sen. Lisa Murkows­ki, R‑Alaska, urged “every­one to be patient” as results come in. “It is crit­i­cal that we give elec­tion offi­cials time to com­plete their jobs, and that we ensure all law­ful­ly cast bal­lots are allowed and count­ed,” she said in a statement.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R‑Ill., addressed Trump direct­ly on Twit­ter: “Stop. Full stop,” he wrote Wednes­day in response to Trump’s claim that Democ­rats were try­ing to “steal” the election.

“The votes will be count­ed and you will either win or lose,” Kinzinger told Trump. “And Amer­i­ca will accept that. Patience is a virtue.”

The com­ments by the Repub­li­can law­mak­ers and oth­er GOP lead­ers were rare, pub­lic rebukes of Trump, who has demand­ed — and gen­er­al­ly received — loy­al­ty from fel­low Repub­li­cans through­out his four-year term. Most in the GOP take pains to avoid direct­ly crit­i­ciz­ing Trump, even when they find his con­duct unhelp­ful or offen­sive to their val­ues and goals.

Trump’s tweets declar­ing vic­to­ry and call­ing for offi­cials to “STOP THE COUNT” were an ear­ly test of how strong­ly he can keep Repub­li­cans in line as he tries to chal­lenge the vot­ing process in court.

While Biden was close Thurs­day to the 270 Elec­toral Col­lege votes need­ed to win the White House, it was unclear when a nation­al win­ner would be deter­mined after a long, bit­ter cam­paign dom­i­nat­ed by the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic and its effects on Amer­i­cans and the nation­al economy.

In remarks Wednes­day at the White House, Trump base­less­ly claimed vic­to­ry and alleged “major fraud on our nation” as state elec­tion offi­cials con­tin­ued count­ing bal­lots amid a huge increase in vot­er turnout.

For­mer New Jer­sey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump ally who is an ana­lyst for ABC News, said there was no basis for Trump’s argu­ment. “All these votes have to be count­ed that are in now,” he said.

Christie called Trump’s attack on the integri­ty of the elec­tion “a bad strate­gic deci­sion” and “a bad polit­i­cal deci­sion, and it’s not the kind of deci­sion you would expect some­one to make … who holds the posi­tion he holds.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Repub­li­can, said Wednes­day on Fox News that while he sup­ports Trump, “if it ends up being Biden, all of us will accept that.”

As elect­ed offi­cials, Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats “believe in the rule of law,” DeWine said. “Every vote has to be count­ed. We as a coun­try accept elec­tion results.”

Mary­land Gov. Lar­ry Hogan, a mod­er­ate who briefly con­sid­ered chal­leng­ing Trump for the Repub­li­can nom­i­na­tion, called Trump’s com­ments “out­ra­geous and uncalled for and a ter­ri­ble mistake.”

“Regard­less of where you stand on this race and what par­ty you are and who you vot­ed for, most Amer­i­cans real­ly want a free and fair elec­tion process, and they want us to count the votes,” Hogan said at a Wash­ing­ton Post event.

Trump’s fam­i­ly, nev­er shy about express­ing their sup­port, took to Twit­ter to ques­tion why GOP law­mak­ers were not rush­ing to the president’s defense. “Where are Repub­li­cans! Have some back­bone. Fight against this fraud. Our vot­ers will nev­er for­get you if your sheep!” Trump’s son Eric tweeted.

Sen. Rob Port­man, R‑Ohio, said states admin­is­ter U.S. elec­tions, not the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. “We should respect that process and ensure that all bal­lots cast in accor­dance with state laws are count­ed. It’s that sim­ple,” Port­man said in a statement.

“It’s best for every­one to step back from the spin and allow the vote coun­ters to do their job,” added Sen. Mike Lee, R‑Utah.

John Bolton, Trump’s for­mer nation­al secu­ri­ty advis­er who has become a Trump crit­ic since leav­ing the White House, called Trump’s false claim that he had won reelec­tion a “dis­grace.”

In an inter­view with the British net­work Sky News, Bolton said Trump’s claims were “some of the most irre­spon­si­ble com­ments that a pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States has ever made.”

Even as Trump pushed to stop vote count­ing in Penn­syl­va­nia and oth­er states where results were trend­ing against him, he and some Repub­li­cans pushed to fin­ish count­ing bal­lots in Ari­zona and Neva­da, where Trump nar­row­ly trailed Biden but hoped to catch up to the for­mer vice president.

“Let’s count the votes — all the votes — before mak­ing dec­la­ra­tions,” Ari­zona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Repub­li­can, tweet­ed. “Ari­zo­nans turned out in his­toric num­bers for this elec­tion, and we owe it to them to count their vote.”

On that point, at least, both par­ties could agree.

Asso­ci­at­ed Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick con­tributed to this report.