Trump broke his silence after a week without comment on camera, speaking at a Rose Garden event to announce the imminent authorization of a coronavirus vaccine.
During a brief speech about the work of the vaccine, Trump insisted that he would never again call for a shutdown to slow the spread of the virus.
Then he added: “Hopefully, what happens in the future, who knows what administration it will be, I guess time will tell.”
The hint of doubt in Trump’s mind came even as he continued to advance a conspiracy theory that massive fraud, for which there is no evidence, robbed him of victory in the November 3 election.
On Friday, Trump tweeted thanks to supporters backing his claim that “the election was rigged” and said he could “come by to say hi” at planned rallies in Washington on Saturday.
Various groups under the banners of “Stop The Steal”, “Million MAGA March” and “Women for America First” have planned demonstrations for the day.
Speakers will reportedly include prominent Trump supporters, including U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has promoted the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.
QAnon supporters claim that Trump is waging a secret war against a global liberal cult of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.
Trump continues to block Biden’s ability to prepare for his transition prior to the January 20 inauguration and has filed numerous unsuccessful lawsuits to challenge the vote count across the country.
On Friday, a Michigan judge issued another dismissal of the Republican fraud allegations.
Trump spoke just after the television networks projected results in the last two undeclared states: Biden winning the former Republican stronghold of Georgia in an extremely close race and Trump obtaining North Carolina.
Those latest counts gave Biden a solid overall final victory in the state-by-state Electoral College deciding the presidency with 306 votes to Trump’s 232.
Throughout the post-election period, Trump has been absent in public from at least normal presidential duties and has been silent about the rates of coronavirus infection across the country and the steady rise in deaths.
He has only left the White House to play golf twice and to attend a brief Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Earlier Friday, Trump attended a briefing in the Oval Office on the search for vaccines, one of the first times he has had official business on his public agenda since the election.
But Trump did not respond to questions after his comments about Rose Garden. He has not had any kind of press conference since the elections and his last public statements were on November 5, when he falsely claimed to have won.
According to the website factba.se, which tracks Trump’s pronouncements, this was the longest time he spent without speaking on camera since he assumed the presidency.
Despite the statement by their own intelligence officials Thursday that the elections were “the safest in US history,” Trump and his right-wing media allies show no signs of abandoning their quest for the results to be overturned. .
“President Trump thinks he will be President Trump, he will have a second term,” spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro also told Fox Business on Friday that “we think he won those elections.”
“We are moving forward here in the White House under the assumption that there will be a second term from Trump,” he said.
Meanwhile, Biden is constantly preparing to take office on January 20, and the list of world leaders who accept that he will be the new president continues to grow.
China was the last nation on board, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said “we express our congratulations.”
However, Biden’s new chief of staff, Ron Klain, told MSNBC late Thursday that Trump’s moves to block the incoming administration’s access to confidential government briefings pose a growing risk.
Klain highlighted the inability to join the preparations for the launch of the Covid vaccine in “February and March, when Joe Biden will be president.”
“The sooner we can get our transition experts to meet with the people who are planning the vaccination campaign, the better it will be,” he said.
Top Republicans remain seemingly loyal to Trump, but there appears to be growing discomfort within the party over the blocking of Biden’s transition team.
Senator James Lankford told Tulsa Radio KRMG earlier this week that he was giving Trump until the end of the week to allow Biden access to the daily presidential intelligence briefing or “I will step in.”
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