US elections: Trump camp promises legal fight is just beginning

The spokeswoman for the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has promised that the legal battle to challenge the electoral victory of Joe Biden in the White House is just beginning.

“This election is not over,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news conference. “Far from there.”

He made a series of allegations of electoral corruption, although no evidence of systemic fraud has emerged that could have influenced the result.

Trump, a Republican, has not conceded the race.

Ever since the media projected on Saturday that Biden had won critical Pennsylvania status, racking up enough votes to reclaim the White House, the president-elect has pushed ahead with his plans to take the reins of power.

Trump took to Twitter again Monday to dispute the result, making unsubstantiated claims of “unthinkable and illegal” activity in the vote.

The General Services Administration, which administers federal agencies, has refrained from allowing Biden’s aides to formally begin the transition, saying a “check” had not yet been done on an election winner.

CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, says Biden’s team is considering its legal options if the Trump administration continues to stall the handover.

White House reporters have said that despite their objections, Trump is expected to reluctantly step down in January and is already talking about running again for the White House in 2024.

At Monday’s press conference, the president’s spokeswoman and a Republican hotshot cited allegations of electoral corruption, while urging reporters to help investigate the unverified claims.

Fox News, previously the president’s favorite news outlet, backed off from the event, citing a lack of evidence.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said host Neil Cavuto. “Unless she [Ms McEnany] has more details to back that up, I can’t continue to show you this. “

Ms McEnany told reporters: “We have only begun the process of obtaining an accurate and honest vote count.”

He claimed that Republican election observers had not been given adequate access to vote counting in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, both Republican and Democratic election monitors stood 13 to 100 feet (4 to 30 m) from polling stations in the city, and local election officials cited prevention needs. of the coronavirus for distancing.

Ms. McEnany also claimed that election officials in that key state had allowed a disproportionate number of Democrats to correct, or “cure,” incorrectly filled ballots.

According to the Inquirer, some Pennsylvania counties allowed voters to amend such errors, while others did not.

Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel said they had collected 131 affidavits or signed legal statements under oath in Michigan as part of their investigation into alleged election irregularities.

“If the shoe was on the other foot,” he said, “if it was so close the other way around, if President Trump were leading the way in all these states, and the media would yell, ‘This is not over.’

The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Pennsylvania, seeking an emergency order to prevent state officials from certifying Biden’s victory in the state. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the lawsuit “without merit.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Republican-controlled states supported the president’s defiance of the election results.

The 10 state attorneys general filed an amicus brief call in the United States Supreme Court supporting the Trump campaign case in Pennsylvania.

The United States Department of Justice has authorized federal prosecutors to investigate any alleged voting irregularities in the presidential elections.

In a memo cited by the US media, Attorney General William Barr wrote that such investigations “can be conducted if there are clear and seemingly credible allegations of wrongdoing that, if true, could potentially affect the outcome of a federal election in a state. individual”. .

Barr said prosecutors should only investigate “substantial allegations” of wrongdoing and that “misleading, speculative, fanciful or outlandish claims” should be ignored.

The New York Times reports that the justice department official who would have overseen such investigations, Richard Pilger, resigned in response to Barr’s memo.

The results of the presidential elections last Tuesday in the states of Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina and Alaska are still pending.

In Georgia, where the count continues and Biden leads, his secretary of state responded on Monday to fellow Republicans who have criticized his handling of the election.

Brad Raffensperger, whose office oversees the Georgia election, said: “Was there an illegal vote? I’m sure there was. And my office is looking into everything.

“Does it rise to the numbers or the margin necessary to shift the outcome to where President Trump receives the electoral votes from Georgia? That’s unlikely.”

The states must resolve the recounts and judicial challenges on the results before December 8. The result will be finalized when the members of the Electoral College of the United States meet on December 14.

High-ranking members of the president’s party have largely refused to pressure Trump to give in.

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell lashed out at Democrats Monday over the issue.

“Let’s not have conferences, let’s not have conferences,” said the Kentucky senator on the floor of the upper house, “on how the president should immediately and with joy accept the preliminary election results of the same characters who have just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last elections and that they insinuated that it would also be illegitimate if they lost again, only if they lost. “

He added: “The president has every right to investigate the allegations and request recounts in accordance with the law and, in particular, the Constitution does not grant any role in this process to wealthy media corporations.”