Trump admits Biden won, claims election was ‘rigged’ (AP Photo)
Trump says Biden ‘won’ but refuses to concede
President Trump tweeted Sunday that Joe Biden “won” the election, though he stated about an hour later that he was not conceding the race as he repeated baseless allegations that the election was “rigged.”
“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump first tweeted. “NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!”
Later in the morning, Trump wrote: “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!”
Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7. Since then, Trump has filed some 16 lawsuits challenging the outcome, though they have floundered in court.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Republicans called on their party to come to grips with reality.
“It’s very important for leaders in the Republican Party to explain to our voters, who are not as stupid as the Democrats think, that, in fact, Trump has lost the election and that his claims of election fraud are baseless,” Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Right now, the Trump campaign is doing the legal equivalent of pinching pennies,” he added.
The president’s former Chief of Staff H.R. McMaster said Trump’s tweets refusing to concede were “just wrong,” “regrettable” and “counterproductive.”
He sought to put a positive spin on the divisive election, which saw record turnout.
“I think our democracy could be stronger than ever,” McMaster said on CNN. “People are making a lot about, hey, we’re divided. But if we weren’t divided, we’d be a one-party system.”
Biden’s recently named Chief of Staff Ron Klain downplayed the importance of Trump’s panicked statements.
“Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president,” Klain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The American people did that.”
But he noted the White House’s refusal to recognize Biden as the successor is impairing the president-elect’s ability to handle the coronavirus outbreak.
He said without recognition from the General Services Administration, members of Biden’s team can’t make contact with government officials.
“There are people at [the Department of Health and Human Services] making plans to implement that [coronavirus] vaccine,” Klain said. “Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we’re going to have on Jan. 20.”
Reuters
Meanwhile, Biden’s getting involved in two runoff Senate races in Georgia, which will decide which party controls the chamber.
“We’re going to put people, money, resources down there to help our two good candidates win,” Klain said.
Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are facing challenges from Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively. The elections are scheduled for Jan. 5.
