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President Donald Trump, while repeating his baseless claim that “we won the race,” appeared to acknowledge the diminishing chances of success in his legal battle to overturn the results of the November 3 election won by President-elect Joe Biden.
“It is difficult to enter the Supreme Court,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ Sunday morning futures on Sunday (local time), his first extended question and answer session since the vote. In addition to a series of legal defeats for the Trump campaign, the results of a partial recount in Wisconsin announced Sunday added slightly to Biden’s margin of victory.
Susan Walsh / AP
President Donald Trump, even as he repeated his baseless claim that “we won the race,” seemed to acknowledge the diminishing chances of success in his legal battles to overturn the election results.
In an incoherent 45-minute call to a friendly host who was unable to challenge his many falsehoods, Trump bitterly reflected that federal law enforcement agencies were not coming to his aid, or were even complicit in what he went on to describe, without foundation, such as “massive fraud”.
“Perhaps they are involved,” he said of the FBI and the Justice Department, without providing any evidence to support his conjecture. At another point, he described the office and the Justice Department as “missing in action” when it came to investigating alleged electoral irregularities.
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When asked about his legal plans, Trump said he would devote “125 percent of my energy” to moving forward with a court fight, even though his supporters have scored dozens of defeats, including a rejection Saturday night. of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
“You need a judge who is willing to hear a case, you need a Supreme Court who is willing to make a really important decision,” Trump said, adding that it would take a “brave judge or judge” to back him because of the alleged threats. . against jurists and their lawyers.
Before Republicans pushed for last month’s confirmation of conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Trump alluded to the importance of locating her quickly, in case of election disputes that come before the Supreme Court.
The formal transition to the Biden administration began last week, and Trump said Thursday that he will “certainly” step down on January 20 as needed, after the Electoral College puts the expected seal on Biden’s victory next. month.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
The formal transition to the Biden administration began last week.
In the Fox interview, however, the president declined to say whether any particular date, including December 14, when voters gather in their respective states to cast their vote, or even the day of inauguration. January 20, would mark the end of his insistence that he, not Biden, had prevailed.
The former vice president’s margin of victory in the popular vote has surpassed 6 million and his projected figure of 306 in the Electoral College far exceeds the 270 required.
“I don’t want to give him an actual date,” Trump said when asked by Fox interviewer Maria Bartiromo when he could admit legal defeat.
Throughout the interview, he telegraphed alternately defiance and resignation, stating that “my mind won’t change for six months,” but also portrayed himself as a victim of nefarious forces that “for the most part … got away with it. hers”.
Trump’s unprecedented refusal to concede the election in the face of ultimate defeat has led many Senate Republicans to take increasingly twisted public positions to avoid contradicting the president’s claims of victory.
Appearing Sunday on NBC Meet the pressSenator Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, repeatedly refused to refer to Biden as president-elect.
“The president-elect will be the president-elect when the electors vote for him,” he said.
Blunt said of Biden’s inauguration: “We are certainly moving forward as if that is what would happen on January 20.” However, he also suggested that the president’s supporters could withhold formal acceptance of Biden’s victory for at least another month, until the House and Senate meet on January 6 for a joint session to count electoral votes.
With more than seven weeks remaining in office, Trump has shown no sense of urgency about the raging Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 266,000 Americans. Public health experts again voiced alarm on Sunday about the twin dangers of colder weather and infections spread by travel and vacation gatherings.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease specialist, said the Meet the press that “what we expect, unfortunately, as we move through the next few weeks through December, [is] that we could see a wave superimposed on that wave we are already in ”.
Alex Brandon / AP
President Donald Trump listens as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talks about the coronavirus. (File photo)
Another member of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr. Deborah Birx, said on the same show that “we are entering this post-Thanksgiving spike with three, four and 10 times more illnesses across the country “than the period after Memorial Day. .
“And that’s what worries us the most,” he said.
Elsewhere, some former high-level figures in the national security system warn that the country faces a dangerous time before Biden takes office.
Retired Administrator Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday he was “actually very concerned about Trump loyalists who have now gone to work at the Pentagon” after Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper for tweet after the election.
“Over the course of 50 or 60 days you can do something constructive, but you can do something that is really destructive,” Mullen said on NBC.
– Los Angeles Times
