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WASHINGTON – On Sunday, President Donald Trump appeared to acknowledge for the first time that Joe Biden won the White House, but made it clear that he would not budge and that he would continue to try to overturn the election result. Trump’s remarks came in tweets that included several unsubstantiated claims about the Nov. 3 vote, which state and federal officials say was safe.
Trump, without using Biden’s name, tweeted that he “won,” something Trump had not said publicly before, though he said the Democrat’s victory was only “in the eyes” of the media. Biden defeated Trump by recapturing a trio of battlefield states that switched from the Democratic column in 2016 (Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) and surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold for the presidency. Biden so far has 78.8 million votes, the most ever for a winning candidate, over Trump’s total: more than 73 million.
“If the president is prepared to start recognizing that reality, that’s a good thing,” Biden’s incoming chief of staff Ron Klain told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Still, Klain said, “Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that. “
A Republican governor said it was “actually good” to see Trump’s tweet that Biden won. “I think that is the beginning of a recognition. … We want to make sure there is a smooth transition, ”Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson said on NBC.
The president has previously refused to accept the election results, and in a subsequent tweet on Sunday, he insisted again, saying: “I grant NOTHING! We have a long way to go. “Even though he apparently acknowledged Biden’s victory, he also argued without evidence that the former vice president only won because the election was” rigged. “Trump then made unsubstantiated complaints about election observers access and about the vote tabs and claimed, “WE WILL WIN!” Twitter soon posted warning labels on the tweets.
There has been no widespread fraud in the 2020 elections. In fact, election officials from both political parties have publicly stated that the election went well and international observers confirmed that there were no serious irregularities.
The Trump campaign has tried to raise legal challenges across the country, but many of the lawsuits have been dismissed and none have included evidence that the outcome can be reversed.
Former President Barack Obama, in an interview conducted and broadcast Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” said he would remind Trump that, as president, he is a public servant and a temporary occupant of the office.
“And when the time is up, it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego, your own interests and your own disappointments,” Obama said. “My advice to President Trump is that if he wants to be remembered in this later stage of the game as someone who put the country first, it is time for him to do the same.”
Obama also criticized Republicans who agreed with Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud.
“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.
Almost two weeks after Election Day, Trump has not called Biden or made a formal concession, and White House officials have insisted they are preparing for a second term.
In recent days, Trump seemed to come closer and closer to acknowledging the reality of his loss. In comments Friday at the Rose Garden about a coronavirus vaccine, Trump said his administration “will not go into a lockdown” to curb the spread of Covid-19, adding that “whatever happens in the future, who knows. what administration it will be. ” be? I guess time will tell. “
Trump on Sunday renewed his baseless attacks on an election technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, with no evidence of serious wrongdoing. Dominion has said that it “denies the claims about any vote changes or alleged software problems with our voting systems.”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a federal agency that oversees US electoral security, said in a statement last week that “the November 3 elections were the safest in US history.” The agency said: “There is no evidence that any voting system has removed or lost votes, changed votes or been compromised in any way.”
In his latest fundraising email, Trump told his supporters that “we are fighting to ensure ALL LEGAL VOTES are counted” and that he had “legal teams on the ground in all critical states.”
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, said it was important for party leaders to explain to voters that Trump lost and that his claims of voter fraud are unfounded. Bolton left the administration last year. Says he resigned; Trump says he fired Bolton.
“I think that as the days go by, it is more and more clear that there is no evidence. But if Republican voters are only hearing Donald Trump’s misrepresentations, it is not surprising that they believe it, “Bolton said on ABC’s” This Week. ” “It is critical that other Republican leaders stand up and explain what really happened. Donald Trump lost what, according to the evidence we have so far, was a free and fair election. “
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney who is helping lead Trump’s national legal front in the electoral challenge, had none of that. In a television appearance that Trump anticipated on Twitter after his morning tweets, Giuliani denied that Trump was conceding: “No, no, no, far from it.”
“I guess,” Giuliani told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” “you would call it sarcastic.”
