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By Jeff Mason, Steve Holland, Andrea Shalal and Alexandra Alper
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Following the statement on 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, either largely supported his strategy or remained silent.
“The simple fact is, this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any state, let alone any of the highly controversial states that are heading for mandatory counts, or states where our campaign has legal challenges. valid and legitimate that could determine the final victor, “Trump said in a statement issued by his campaign around noon.
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 adviser.
The Trump campaign and Republicans have filed numerous lawsuits for alleged electoral irregularities. The judges ruled out cases in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
In Pennsylvania, justices sided with Republicans, ordering some provisional ballots to be set aside and giving Republican observers greater access to the vote count. Legal experts said the legal challenges were too narrow in scope to have an impact on the election outcome.
Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to raise at least $ 60 million to fund legal challenges, sources told Reuters.
“He should make sure all votes are counted and demand transparency. That puts him on a solid rhetorical foundation,” said another former White House official.
Trump was on his golf property in Virginia when the race was called for Biden. Groups of Biden supporters lined two blocks of his caravan route Saturday afternoon. Trump reentered the White House wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, looking sad with a cell phone in hand. Biden’s supporters gathered and celebrated loudly near the White House.
‘GRANT WITH THANKS’
Republicans were concerned that Trump could tarnish his legacy if he ultimately fails to achieve a graceful exit, eroding 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 recount and litigation, then President Trump will have to make a decision. We hope that in that case he will gracefully concede,” he said.
Biden crossed that crucial threshold on Saturday by winning the battlefield state of Pennsylvania.
A Trump adviser said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows would likely be the aide who would pitch Trump the idea of compromising. Meadows contracted 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. He 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.”
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland, Andrea Shalal, and Alexandra Alper; Edited by Heather Timmons, Paul Simao, and Daniel Wallis)
