While appearing on CNN Newsroom Monday, the congressman was asked by co-host Jim Sciutto why he thinks some of his GOP colleagues are so reluctant to accept the projected presidential victory for Joe Biden.

“There will be books written about this hold that President Trump has over a lot of Republican leadership and base,” Rooney said. “I don’t understand it. It was never that way with previous Republican leaders and I think the peaceful transition of power is a critical element of our democracy.”

Rooney’s comments come as Trump continues to make baseless claims of widespread voter fraud related to the presidential election, and that Democrats stole the race from him.

While a number of Republicans, like Rooney, have already congratulated Biden on his projected victory, others have stood with Trump and his refusal to concede.

Both South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Texas Senator Ted Cruz have both suggested that Trump should not concede.

“If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again,” Graham told Fox News on Sunday.

“President Trump should not concede. We’re down to less—10,000 votes in Georgia. He’s going to win North Carolina. We have gone from 93,000 votes to less than 20,000 votes in Arizona, where more—more votes to be counted,” Graham added.

On Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Cruz said, “I believe President Trump still has a path to victory.”

Cruz continued, “and that path is to count every single legal vote that was cast, but also not to count any votes that were fraudulently cast or illegally cast, and we have a legal process to determine what’s legal and what isn’t.”

When asked what maintains Trump’s hold over several Republicans, Rooney suggested that fear was a large part for many elected officials, saying, “they don’t want to get tweeted at in an adverse manner.”

Rooney also added that he believes Trump’s attack on the election shows that “I think we’re playing into Russia’s hands here, by undermining our own Democratic principles.”

“There was an election, it appears that the vice president won it,” Rooney said. “I don’t see there’s any way that it could ever be changed in any of these states….so let’s get on with the program.”

Newsweek reached out to Rooney’s office for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.