Biden: Trump refuses to admit ‘a shame’

Joe Biden has called President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede victory in last week’s White House election is “a disgrace.”

But the president-elect of the United States, who has been in contact with foreign leaders, insisted that nothing would stop the transfer of power.

Meanwhile, Trump tweeted that he would finally win the race that all the major television networks have predicted he will lose.

As happens every four years, the US media projected the winner of the elections.

None of the state-by-state results have been certified yet, various vote counts continue, and the result will only be set in stone once the US Electoral College meets on December 14.

A journalist asked the president-elect on Tuesday what he thought of President Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat.

“Honestly, I think it’s a shame,” said Biden, a Democrat, in Wilmington, Delaware.

“The only thing that, how can I say this tactfully, I don’t think will help the president’s legacy.”

“At the end of the day, you know, everything will come true on January 20,” he added, referring to the opening day.

Biden has been receiving phone calls with foreign leaders as he prepares to take office.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among those who spoke with him on Tuesday.

Referring to those calls, Biden said: “I am letting you know America is back. We will get back in the game.”

But as he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris move forward, a little-known government agency led by a Trump appointee is stalling the handover.

The General Services Administration coordinates funding and access to federal departments for incoming administrations. However, so far he has refused to formally recognize Biden as president-elect.

However, the Democrat said: “Frankly, we don’t see anything holding us back.”

On Tuesday, Trump took to Twitter to launch several upper-case tweets about “massive abuse of vote counting,” stating, “We will win!”

His tweets were tagged by the social network as disputed.

The president has been making unsubstantiated claims that Biden was only able to win the election through electoral corruption, but so far no evidence has emerged to support the allegation.

Trump loyalist US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a news conference Tuesday at the State Department that once every “legal” vote was tallied, a “second Trump administration” would begin.

Trump’s fellow Republicans have largely refrained from acknowledging Biden’s projected victory.

When asked Tuesday why he had not congratulated the Democrat, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said, “There is nothing to congratulate you on.”

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt said Trump “may not have been defeated at all.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said Trump has every right to present legal challenges to the outcome in various battle states, such as Pennsylvania.

Few Republicans want to draw the ire of the president by publicly accepting that Joe Biden has won. Those who have already spoken out, Senators Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney among them, broke with Trump long ago.

For the rest, the president still has enormous power at the base of the party, and can, and has, wielded against those he believes are not loyal enough.

And so, from the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, the name of the game is patience. Accept that the president has the right to make his claims, give him time to vent his frustration, but think that there will not be evidence of sufficient magnitude to change the results of the elections.

Celebrate Republican victories in negative voting, not acknowledging the absurdity of the alleged fixation of elections that is massive enough to topple a president, but not to achieve a fully Democratic Congress.

Through his actions, if not his words, the president’s fellow Republicans are acknowledging that, in January, there will be a new president. Trump will pass too.

A Pennsylvania postal worker who claimed officials tampered with mail ballots in the undecided state has retracted his claims, according to the Democrat-controlled House Oversight Committee.

Richard Hopkins alleged that a postmaster in Erie, Pennsylvania, had ordered workers to roll back late votes so they could be counted.

He signed a legal statement under oath attesting to his claim, but the oversight committee said Hopkins had disavowed the accusation after being questioned by a U.S. Postal Service inspector general.

A man claiming to be Mr. Hopkins later denied retracting his story in a video posted on YouTube. “I have not retracted my statement,” he said. “That’s not what happened and you will find out tomorrow.”

Trump retweeted the video, praising the alleged whistleblower as a “brave patriot.”

Hopkins’ claim was cited in a letter from Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, to the Justice Department, urging it to open a federal investigation.

Republicans got a boost Tuesday in their campaign to maintain control of the upper house of Congress when a Democratic challenger admitted defeat in a race in North Carolina.

The state’s Republican incumbent, Thom Tillis, stood his ground after his Democratic opponent, Cal Cunningham, was embroiled in an extramarital affair scandal.

With North Carolina resolved, all eyes now turn to Georgia, where the two Senate seats currently held by Republicans will be decided in a runoff in January.

If Democrats win both seats, which won’t be easy, they could still change control of the Senate. That’s because, in the event of a 50-50 tie, the vice president is the tiebreaker, and Kamala Harris will take office in January.

Last week, Republicans were also able to regain an Alabama Senate seat won by Democrats in 2018, although they lost seats in Colorado and Arizona. The Republican candidate is currently leading the Alaska race, where votes are still being tabulated.