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Donald Trump has said he will leave the White House when the electoral college votes for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, the closest the outgoing president has come to admitting defeat.
Biden won the presidential election with 306 electoral college votes, many more than the 270 required, compared to 232 for Trump. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote count.
So far, Trump has defied tradition by refusing to admit defeat, instead making a series of unsubstantiated claims about alleged voter fraud and launching legal attempts to challenge the results in various states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But desperate efforts by Trump and his aides to overturn the results in key states, either through lawsuits or pressuring state lawmakers, have failed.
Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said that if Biden, who is due to be sworn in on January 20, were certified as the winner of the election by the electoral college, he would leave the White House.
Trump’s comments, made to reporters at the White House after speaking to troops during the traditional Thanksgiving address to American service members, seem to bring him one step closer to admitting defeat.
When asked if he would leave the White House if the university vote was against him, Trump said: “I certainly will. And you know. If they do, they made a mistake, ”he said.
However, Trump said it would be “a very difficult thing to admit” and declined to say whether he will attend Biden’s inauguration, which will take place on January 20.
The electoral college will meet on December 14, when the nominated voters from each state will cast their votes for the winner of the state’s presidential ballot. Votes are officially counted by Congress on January 6.
Biden and Trump stayed close to home to celebrate Thanksgiving as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country.
Biden spent the holidays with his family in Delaware, giving a presidential-style speech in a message posted on Twitter. He said Americans were making a “sacrifice shared by the entire country” and a “statement of common purpose” by staying home with their immediate families.
Trump often likes to celebrate the holidays at his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida. But on Thursday he remained in the Washington area, spending part of the morning at his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where he played a round of golf.
The United States is rapidly approaching 13 million confirmed Covid-19 infections, and as of Thursday, more than 263,000 people in the country had lost their lives to the coronavirus.
