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The president has refused to budge while his team sought legal options to challenge the results.
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This story is part of Elections 2020, CNET’s coverage of the November vote and its aftermath.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he would step down if the Electoral College elects President-elect Joe Biden next month, recognizing for the first time what much of the country had concluded nearly three weeks ago.
“I certainly will,” Trump told a reporter when asked if he would leave the White House if the Dec. 14 vote certifies Biden. “And you know.”
In his first remarks to journalists since the November 3 general election, the president also made it clear that he had no intention of compromising, and suggested that he would continue with legal challenges to the vote. Some of these challenges have been rejected or withdrawn from the courts.
Trump’s refusal to concede has delayed the presidential transition process as the country faces a health crisis unique in a century. Public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said that a smooth transition is critical to the effective delivery of vaccines against COVID-19, which has claimed more than 263,000 American lives. Biden has made coronavirus treatment a cornerstone of his incoming administration.
Three vaccines appear promising, although it is unclear when any of them might be distributed. Pfizer and BioNTech reportedly requested emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration for their vaccine. Moderna and an AstraZeneca-Oxford association have also produced vaccines.
Predicting when or if Trump would back down has been a political parlor game for weeks. In a Nov. 15 tweet, the president appeared to indicate that Biden had won before making unsubstantiated claims that the election had been taken away from him.
“He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA”, Trump tweeted in an apparent reference to the president-elect. “I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was an EQUIPPED CHOICE!”
Twitter added a tag to the tweet: “This claim about voter fraud is in dispute.”
On November 23, the president appeared to get a little closer to a statement resembling a concession, saying in a series of tweets that he would authorize his team to participate. “initial protocols“for a transition process. Still, he promised to fight, saying”Our case continues STRONG. ”
The Trump administration has already approved the start of a formal transition.
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