Approaching the exit, Trump says he will leave

But the US leader gets angry about the concession of respecting the constituency vote

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said Thursday he will leave the White House if Electoral College formalizes President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, though he insisted such a decision would be a “mistake”.

Trump made the comments as he spent his Thanksgiving renewing unsubstantiated claims that “massive fraud” and dishonest officials in the battlefield states caused his defeat.

“I certainly will. But you know that,” Trump said when asked if he would leave the building, allowing for a peaceful transition of power in January. But the Republican president – answering questions for the first time since the November 3 election – insisted that “many things” would happen between now and then that could skew the results.

“There is still a long way to go,” Trump said, even though he lost.

The fact that an incumbent president even had to ask if he would leave office after losing a bid for re-election underlines the extent to which Trump has destroyed one convention after another in the past three weeks. While there is no evidence of the kind of widespread fraud Trump has claimed, he and his legal team have nonetheless worked to question the integrity of the election and try to overturn the will of voters in an unprecedented violation of democratic norms. .

Trump spoke to reporters in the White House’s elaborate diplomatic reception room after holding a conference call with U.S. military leaders stationed around the world. He thanked them for their service and jokingly warned them not to eat too much turkey, then turned to the election after finishing the call. He repeated the grievances and angrily denounced officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two key states in the swing that helped give Biden, a Democrat, victory.

Trump said, despite the results, that this may not be his last Thanksgiving at the White House. And he insisted that there had been “massive fraud,” even though state officials and foreign observers said there was no evidence and Trump’s campaign has repeatedly failed in court.

The Trump administration has already given the green light to initiate a formal transition. But Trump objected to Biden moving forward.

“I think it’s not fair that he’s trying to pick a government,” Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to get Biden’s team in motion.

And because he refused to concede, Trump said he will go to Georgia to rally supporters ahead of two Senate elections that will determine which party controls the Senate.

As for the constituency, Trump has made it clear that he will likely never formally admit, even if he said he would leave the White House. “It will be a very difficult thing to admit. Because we know there has been massive fraud,” he said, stressing that “time is not on our side.”