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There is growing recognition in Donald Trump’s inner circle that efforts to reverse Joe Biden’s victory will be futile, though some aides have urged the president to pursue focused legal challenges, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump has given no indication that he is preparing to budge. His closest aide, son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, recommended that the president ask the courts to ensure transparency around ongoing vote counts in various disputed states, the people said.
The president is lagging further behind Biden in three pivotal states – Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada – and has not regained enough ground in Arizona to make the state likely to return to Trump’s column.
He is now behind Biden by about 101,000 votes combined in all four states, with the biggest deficits in Pennsylvania and Nevada. There is awareness among Trump aides that the election has been decided, according to three of the people.
But the president plans to explore all options to ensure that legal votes are counted and votes that the campaign claims are illegal are not, one of the people said.
Neither Trump nor his team have released any evidence of widespread election irregularities or illegal votes.
Monday plans
The president’s team plans to make additional legal moves starting Monday, according to one person, who declined to elaborate.
Biden’s victory was announced shortly before noon, New York time, on Saturday by the Associated Press and television networks, after the former vice president’s lead in Pennsylvania expanded.
Several foreign leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, quickly issued statements congratulating the president-elect, and Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris delivered victory speeches on Saturday night.
Trump was at his golf course in northern Virginia on Saturday when the race was called and returned there Sunday.
Former President George W. Bush spoke with Biden and Harris on Sunday, his office said in a statement referring to Biden as president-elect.
Bush said Trump “has the right to request a recount and file legal challenges,” but added that “the American people can trust that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be maintained, and its outcome is clear.”
Members of Trump’s team met with the president Saturday at the White House after he played 18 holes of golf: David Bossie, a Republican political operative overseeing the legal fight; attorney Eric Herschmann; campaign manager Bill Stepien and senior political advisers Justin Clark and Jason Miller.
‘FOR LONG’
Trump continues to insist that he defeated Biden, a meritless claim that has been shared by others in his orbit, including personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The president tweeted on Saturday that he won the election “BY LONG.”
There are mixed feelings in Trump’s circle about his decision to play golf on Saturday, when it was possible that the race would be called for Biden.
One aide said he indicated that the president did not care if he won or lost, even as campaign officials, under his orders, pushed through legal and public relations challenges.
Moments after the race was called, Giuliani held a press conference at a lawn care company outside of Philadelphia, where he denounced election fraud and irregularities, without presenting credible evidence, and declared that Trump would not budge.
Legal teams from the White House and the campaign are working in unison to expose any wrongdoing they can, one person said.
White House legal counsel Pat Cipollone met with Trump on Friday, along with Kushner, Bossie, Miller, Clark, Stepien, counsel Hope Hicks, social media chief Dan Scavino, and Marc Short, chief of staff. of the vice president.
‘Show us’
So far, the legal fight has not been very successful. Several lawsuits have been dismissed in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan.
The Supreme Court temporarily granted the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s request to state that mail ballots that arrive late in the state must be segregated if they are disqualified.
But it’s unclear how that would help Trump. Needs more ballots to be counted to win votes in Pennsylvania after Biden took the lead.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Trump ally, said Sunday that Republicans must finally acknowledge Biden’s victory, but added that the president’s team has been slow to accept that they lost a “very controversial” election. .
“You have the president sitting in the White House without acknowledging him and I think there are a lot of Republicans who are trying to understand him,” Christie said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
“That is why it was so important to tell the president from the beginning, ‘If your basis for not conceding was electoral fraud, then show us,” he said.
Top campaign aides pointed out that they will fight for as long as the president wants, even when the reality of defeat kicks in on them.
Communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted a photo from the front page of the Washington Times allegedly declaring Al Gore the winner of the 2000 presidential race.
Those projections were reversed when George W. Bush took a narrow lead in Florida and Bush won the presidency after the Supreme Court stopped a recount in the Sunshine State.
The Washington Times said the images were “doctored” and the newspaper “never ran a headline for ‘President Gore’.” Murtaugh later deleted his post.
Read: Joe Biden wins US presidency after bitter dispute with Trump
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