Updated: November 16, 2020 5:30:43 pm
Barack Obama with Donald Trump. (AP file photo)
It is time for US President Donald Trump to give in to President-elect Joe Biden, as there is no stage to reverse the election result, his predecessor Barack Obama said.
Trump, who refuses to budge, has 232 votes in the electoral college. He has challenged election results in several states, including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. He had demanded a recount in Wisconsin.
In all of these states, he alleged that there was massive voter fraud and electoral negligence.
Biden has 306 of the electoral college’s 538 votes, well above half of 270.
“Absolutely,” Obama told 60 Minutes of the CBNS News in an interview broadcast Sunday when asked if, in his opinion, it’s time for Trump to back down.
“Well, I mean, I think it was about time he conceded, probably the day after the election, or at the latest, two days after the election. When you look at the numbers objectively, Joe Biden will have won comfortably. There is no scenario in which any of those states deviate, and it certainly is not enough to reverse the election result, “Obama said.
More than courtesy of a concession, the Trump White House is refusing to release the usual funds and facilities for the incoming administration. President-elect Biden is not receiving secret national security reports like Trump did when he was president-elect, Obama alleged.
In stating that a president is a public servant, Obama said they are temporary occupants of the office, by design.
“And when the time is up, it will be your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego, your own interests and your own disappointments. My advice to President Trump is that if he wants to be remembered in this last stage of the game as someone who put the country first, it is time for him to do the same, ”he said.
Responding to a question, Obama said that America’s adversaries have seen the country weakened, not just as a result of this election, but in recent years.
“We have these divisions in the body politic that they are convinced they can exploit. There is an old adage that partisan politics must stop at the water’s edge, right? That when it comes to our foreign policy, it is the United States of America, not the divided states of America, “said Obama, whose latest book” The Promised Land “hits the market later this week.
“We have been through a presidency that ignored a whole series of basic institutional norms, expectations that we had for a president that had previously been observed by Republicans and Democrats. And perhaps most importantly, and most disconcertingly, what we’ve seen is what some people call the decay of truth, something that has been accelerated by outgoing President Trump, the feeling that not only do we not have to tell the truth, but the truth doesn’t ‘even matter,’ he said.
When asked about Trump’s accusations of widespread voter fraud, Obama said the president does not like to lose and never admits loss.
“I’m more concerned that other Republican officials who clearly know better agree with this, are pleasing him in this way. It is one more step to delegitimize not only the incoming Biden administration, but democracy in general. And that’s a dangerous path, “he said.
“We would never accept that our own children behave that way if they lose, right? I mean, if my daughters, in any competition, pouted and then accused the other side of cheating when they lost, when there was no evidence of it, we would scold them. I think there has been this feeling in recent years that literally anything goes and is justified in gaining power, “he said.
“And that is not unique to the United States. There are strongmen and dictators all over the world who think that ‘I can do anything to stay in power. I can kill people. I can put them in jail. I can make false choices. I can repress journalists. ‘ But that’s not who we are supposed to be. And one of the signals that I think Joe Biden should send to the world is, ‘No, those values that we preach, and that we believe in and subscribe to, we still believe,’ ”the former president said.
Obama hoped the new president could set a new tone.
“That is not going to solve all the stalemate in Washington. I think we will have to work with the media and with technology companies to find ways to better inform the public about the issues and to enforce the standards that ensure that we can separate truth from fiction. I think we have to work locally, ”he said.
Noting that there is a set of traditions that the United States has followed in the peaceful transfer of power, Obama said the outgoing president congratulates the incoming president, instructs the government and agencies to cooperate with the new incoming government.
“The president-elect is invited to the Oval Office And then on the day of the inauguration, the president invites the president-elect to the White House and there is a small reception. And then you drive to the inauguration site, and the outgoing president sits there and is part of the audience as the new president takes office, “he said.
“And at that time, the outgoing president is a citizen like everyone else and owes the new president the opportunity to do everything he can on behalf of the American people. If Donald Trump will do the same, we will have to see. So far, that hasn’t been his focus. But you know that hope is eternal. There is a promised land somewhere, ”Obama said.
.
