AFP
President Donald Trump said Thursday for the
first time that he would leave the White House if Joe Biden is
officially confirmed the winner of the US election, even as he
railed against the “rigged” vote.
Trump has made an unprecedented attempt to defy the results
of the election by refusing to concede, spreading wild theories
about stolen ballots and launching baseless legal challenges that
have been thrown out by courts.
Answering his first questions from reporters since the November
3 vote, the president moved closer to accepting that he would serve
only one term in office before Biden is inaugurated on January
20.
When asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral
College confirmed Biden’s victory, Trump said, “Certainly
I will. And you know that.”
But “if they do, they made a mistake,” he said, adding, “It’s
going to be a very hard thing to concede.”
“I think that there will be a lot of things happening between
now and (January) 20th,” he said.
The Electoral College, which determines the White House winner,
will meet on December 14 to certify Biden’s victory, with Biden
receiving 306 votes to Trump’s 232.
“This election was a fraud,” Trump said, again without
providing any evidence during his remarks to reporters at the White
House after he spoke to military personnel via video-link on the
Thanksgiving holiday.
He described the US voting infrastructure as “like a third-world
country.”
Earlier in the day he tweeted that “this was a 100% RIGGED
ELECTION,” while on Wednesday he called on his Republican
supporters “to turn the election over.”
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President-elect Biden has said that Americans “won’t stand” for
attempts to derail the vote outcome, and urged for Americans to
unite to fight the worsening pandemic.
More than 260,000 people have died in the US from Covid-19, with
daily death tolls surging to 2,000 on recent days.
Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Biden has added to
the countless norms he has torn up during his four years in
power.
Supporters suggest he is already eyeing a run for president in
2024.
Trump, 74, is alleging — among other conspiracy theories — that
voting machines deliberately deleted millions of his votes, though
the government election security agency declared it “the most
secure” election in US history.
Under pressure from some senior
Republicans, Trump this week ended his blockade of
government assistance to ease Biden’s preparation for assuming the
presidency.
Trump said Thursday he would soon travel to Georgia to
campaign ahead of two key runoff elections that will decide which
party controls the Senate.
Biden, 78, this week introduced a slate of veteran diplomats and
policy-makers who will make up his national security and foreign
policy team, saying: “America is back, ready to lead the
world.”
He said that in his first 100 days in office, he would tackle
the Covid crisis, scrap Trump policies “damaging” the
environment and push legislation offering millions of undocumented
US residents a route to citizenship.
-AFP