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Donald Trump said he will leave the White House when the constituency votes for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden at the closest point to which the outgoing president has come to concede defeat.
Biden won the presidential election with 306 constituency votes – far more than the required 270 – against Trump’s 232. Biden also leads Trump by over 6 million in the popular vote count.
Trump has so far defied tradition by refusing to admit defeat, instead making a series of unsubstantiated claims about alleged election fraud and launching legal attempts to contest the results in several states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But the desperate efforts of Trump and his collaborators to overturn the results in key states, both through lawsuits and lobbying state lawmakers, have failed.
Speaking to reporters during Thanksgiving, Trump said that if Biden – who is expected to be sworn in on January 20 – is certified as the winner of the election by the constituency, he would leave the White House.
Trump’s comments, made to reporters in the White House after speaking to troops during the traditional Thanksgiving Day speech to U.S. service members, seem to take him one step closer to admitting defeat.
Asked if he would have left the White House if the college grade went against him, Trump said, “I certainly will. And you know it, “adding that:” If they do, they’ve made a mistake. “
However, Trump said it would be “a very difficult thing to concede” and declined to say whether he will attend Biden’s inauguration, which is expected to take place on January 20.
It was the first time he’d been answering reporters’ questions since election day, and at times he got combative, calling a reporter a “light” and telling him “don’t talk to me like that.”
The Trump administration has already given the green light to initiate a formal transition. But Trump disputed Biden’s moving forward.
“I think it’s not fair that he’s trying to pick a toilet,” Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to get Biden’s team ready.
At one point he urged reporters not to give Biden credit for pending coronavirus vaccines.
“Don’t let me take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before,” he said.
As for whether or not he intends to formally declare that his candidacy will restart in 2024 – as he discussed with his collaborators – Trump “didn’t want to talk about 2024 yet.”
In late-night tweets, Trump complained that the media hadn’t covered his press conference the way he wanted, saying the main point he had tried to make was who won the election. Twitter reported its comments.
The constituency will meet on December 14, when voters nominated by each state will vote for the winner of the state’s presidential vote. The votes are officially counted by Congress on January 6.
Asked about Trump’s comments, Biden’s campaign spokesman Michael Gwin said, President-elect Biden won 306 electoral votes. States continue to certify those results, the Electoral College will meet soon to ratify this result “, adding:” Biden will be sworn in as president on January 20, 2021 “.
Proving that he intends to remain in the political fray until the end of his term, Trump said on Thursday that he will travel to Georgia, a once solidly Republican state that narrowly lost to Biden, on December 5 to campaign for two Senate candidates. republican.
The two ballot elections in Georgia on January 5 will determine whether Republicans retain a majority in the Senate.
Biden and Trump both stayed close to home to celebrate Thanksgiving as the coronavirus pandemic raged across the country.
Biden spent the vacation with his family in Delaware, giving a presidential-style address in a message posted on Twitter. He said the Americans were making a “shared sacrifice for the whole country” and a “common mission statement” by staying home with their immediate families.
Trump often likes to celebrate holidays at his Mar-a-Largo Florida resort. But on Thursday he stayed 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 fast approaching 13 million confirmed Covid-19 infections, and on Thursday, more than 263,000 people in the country lost their lives to the coronavirus.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
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