Following the statement Saturday that Democrat Joe Biden had won the White House race, Republican President Donald Trump and his allies made one thing clear: They don’t plan to budge anytime soon.
The president, who has spent months trying to undermine election results with unproven allegations of fraud, vowed Saturday to go ahead with a legal strategy that he hopes will overturn statewide results that gave Biden the victory in the election Tuesday. Trump’s aides and Republican allies, while somewhat conflicting about how to proceed, largely supported his strategy.
“The simple fact is that this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any state, let alone highly controversial states that are heading for mandatory counts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor, “Trump said in a statement released by your campaign.
The president’s allies and advisers privately admitted that the former New York businessman’s chances of overturning the election results and remaining in the White House were slim. As they prepared for an eventual concession, they asked for time to let the legal challenges run their course.
“It should allow the counts to go ahead, file whatever claims there are, and then if nothing changes, it should give in,” said a Trump aide.
Republicans are trying to raise at least $ 60 million to fund legal challenges in various states, alleging foul play and seeking donations, sources told Reuters. More than half of the money raised would go to pay off campaign debts, says the fine print in email and text message requests.
“You need to make sure every vote is counted and demand transparency. That puts him on a solid rhetorical foundation, ”said another former White House official.
Republicans outside the White House warned that Trump could tarnish his legacy if he ultimately fails to achieve a graceful exit and erodes his future political power. “It will be impossible for him to run again in 2024 if he is seen as a sore loser,” said a Republican source in Congress.
Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, a staunch Trump advocate, on Friday urged the president, should the time come, to accept an unfavorable outcome with “grace and composure,” and the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board wrote that Trump “You need evidence to prove electoral fraud.”
“If Mr. Biden has 270 votes in the Electoral College at the end of the count and litigation, President Trump will have a decision to make. We hope that in that case he will grant gracefully. “
Biden passed that crucial threshold on Saturday by winning the Pennsylvania state battlefield.
REASONABLE PERIOD
A Trump adviser said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows would likely be the aide who would pitch Trump the idea of releasing, but Meadows proposed the coronavirus
this week and is in quarantine.
Another former adviser said Vice President Mike Pence or Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would have the job of telling the president when it was time to compromise.
“President Trump has the right to take the time he wants to absorb this. It was close and it is not productive to demand an immediate concession, “said Ari Fleischer, who was the White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration.
“The best thing to keep this country together is to give the president a reasonable period of time to accept the results.”
The Trump campaign has already lost court rulings in hotly contested states, including Georgia and Nevada, but scored a victory in Pennsylvania on Friday when a court ordered election officials to set aside provisional ballots cast on Election Day by voters whose absent or mailed ballots were received on time.
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