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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College formalizes the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, even as he insisted that decision would be a “mistake,” as he spent his Thanksgiving renewing unsubstantiated claims of that “massive fraud” and corrupt officials in battlefield states caused his electoral defeat.
“I certainly will. But they already know, ”Trump said Thursday when asked if he would vacate the building, allowing for a peaceful transition of power in January. But Trump, answering questions for the first time since Election Day, insisted that “a lot of things” would happen between now and then that could alter the results.
“This has a long way to go,” Trump said, though he lost.
The fact that a sitting US president would even have to address whether or not he would leave office after losing re-election underscores the extent to which Trump has crushed one convention after another in the past three weeks. While there is no evidence of the type of widespread fraud, Trump has been alleging, he and his legal team have nonetheless been working to question the integrity of the election and attempt to override the will of the voters in a violation without precedents of democratic norms.
Trump spoke to reporters in the ornate Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House after conducting a teleconference with US military leaders stationed around the world. He thanked them for their service and jokingly warned them not to eat too much turkey, then went on to choose after finishing the call. He reiterated complaints and angrily denounced officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two key states that helped Biden win.
Trump claimed, despite the results, that this may not be his last Thanksgiving in the White House. And he insisted there had been “massive fraud,” even though state officials and international observers have said there is no evidence of that and that the Trump campaign has repeatedly failed in court.
The Trump administration has already given the green light for a formal transition to get underway. But Trump disagreed with Biden going ahead.
“I think it’s not okay for him to be trying to pick a cabinet,” Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to bring Biden’s team up to speed.
And because he refused to budge, Trump announced that he will travel to Georgia to rally supporters before the two Senate second-round elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. Trump said the rally by Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will likely take place on Saturday. The White House later clarified that it was referring to December 5.
One of the reasons Republicans have supported Trump and his unsubstantiated claims of fraud has been to keep their loyal base energetic ahead of the Jan.5 runoff. But Trump, in his comments, openly questioned whether that choice would be fair to a measure that could curb Republican turnout.
“I think it is a very fraudulent system. I’m very concerned about that, ”he said. “People are very disappointed that they robbed us.”
As for the Electoral College, Trump made it clear that he will likely never formally concede, even if he said he would leave the White House.
“It’s going to be very difficult to admit. Because we know there was a massive fraud, “he said, noting that” time is not on our side. “
“If they do,” he votes against them, Trump added, “they have made a mistake.”
When asked if he would attend Biden’s inauguration, Trump said he knew the answer but didn’t want to share it yet.
But there were some signs that Trump was coming to terms with his loss.
At one point, he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending coronavirus vaccines. “Don’t let the vaccines take credit because the vaccines were me and I put more pressure on people than I ever have before,” he said.
As for whether or not he plans to formally declare his candidacy to run again in 2024, as he has discussed with his advisers, Trump said he did not “want to talk about 2024 just yet.”
All states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on December 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by December 8. States have already started that process, including Michigan, where Trump and his allies tried and couldn’t delay the process. and Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Voting certification at the state and local level is often a ministerial task that receives little attention, but that changed this year with Trump’s refusal to budge and his unprecedented attempts to overturn election results through a series of challenges. legal and attempts to manipulate the certification process in battlefield states that he lost.
Biden won by wide margins in both the Electoral College and the popular vote, where he received nearly 80 million votes, a record.
