[ad_1]
Some Trump administration officials say privately that they understand that Biden won, but that the president needs time to ‘process’ his loss.
US President Donald Trump raises his fist after speaking on Election Night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, early November 4, 2020. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has yet to admit defeat in the US election. But with a word here, a slip there, he is raising the perspective more and more clearly.
In a tweet Sunday morning, Trump appeared to accidentally acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory, before swiftly reversing course to claim he won, and again pressing unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud while ignoring growing coronavirus cases.
“He won because the election was rigged,” Trump tweeted.
The first two words, days after a verbal slip in which Trump said “time will tell” if he remains president, were immediately taken as one more step toward a concession.
But the president soon took a 180-degree turn by tweeting: “He only won in the eyes of FAKE MEDIA. I don’t concede ANYTHING! We have a long way to go.”
And on Sunday night he said, “I WON THE ELECTION!” in a tweet quickly flagged by Twitter.
He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I grant NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was an EQUIPPED CHOICE!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
I WON THE ELECTION!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
President-elect Biden won 306 electoral college votes in the Nov. 3 election, 36 more than needed to win the White House.
Top federal and state election authorities, including a top cybersecurity agency and 16 federal prosecutors assigned to oversee the elections, have rejected claims of widespread election manipulation.
Still, Trump continues to insist that he will prove fraud and prevail in court.
Meanwhile, leaders of nearly every country in the world congratulated Biden on his victory, reinforcing the idea that hardly anyone, in the United States or elsewhere, is taking Trump’s legal challenges seriously.
Judges have almost universally dismissed such challenges as unfounded. On Sunday, Trump insisted that “many” of them had not been shelved by his team and that their “big cases … will soon be shelved.”
Reacting to Trump’s initial tweet, Biden’s newly appointed chief of staff, Ron Klain, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it was “further confirmation of the reality that Joe Biden won the election.”
Biden himself met Sunday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, with his transition advisers, his spokesmen said.
Some Trump administration officials say privately that they understand that Biden won, but that the president needs time to “process” his loss.
Others, abroad, speculate that Trump may be trying to galvanize his base to back some future business or media effort or even to support a new bid for office in 2024.
‘THERE IS DAMAGE’
So far, the president has refused to cooperate in the change to a Biden administration, denying the Democrat both federal funding for transition work and vital briefings from outgoing officials.
Democrats say this could have a damaging impact on both national security and the serious and growing challenges posed by the coronavirus, with cases surpassing 11 million since the pandemic began on Sunday, one million of them in the United States alone. last six days.
“Joe Biden will become president of the United States amid an ongoing crisis,” Klain said. “It has to be a perfect transition.”
For now, he said, Biden and his team are not even allowed to consult with someone like the government’s top immunologist, Anthony Fauci.
“Of course it would be better” if they could start such talks, Fauci told CNN on Sunday, noting that the virus could kill tens of thousands more Americans by the time Biden takes office on January 20.
Former President Barack Obama told CBS “Sunday Morning” that there was “harm” in Trump’s delay in acknowledging Biden’s victory.
Millions of people would believe that there was fraud, because the president said so, in a corrosive development for democracy, he added.
A small but growing number of Republican figures have begun to push for Trump to relent, including Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who has been critical of the president since he left the administration.
He told CNN that it was crucial for more Republicans to persuade Trump that he had lost in a fair election.
Bolton added: “I don’t expect him to leave nicely. I hope he leaves.”
GRAND RALLY PRO-TRUMP
Persuading those who voted for Trump may be a different matter.
More than 10,000 Trump supporters marched in Washington on Saturday to back up his fraud allegations, gathering in Washington’s Freedom Plaza before marching to the Supreme Court in strident atmosphere.
At least 20 people were arrested after the skirmishes broke out, reportedly including four for firearms violations and one for assaulting a police officer.
Trump himself drove past the rally in his armored caravan, on his way to play golf, grinning through the window of his limousine to wild cheers.
Download the EWN app on your iOS or Android device.
[ad_2]
