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Trump to Leave if EC Seats Biden 11/27 06:26
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave the White House if
the Electoral College formalizes President-Elect Joe Biden's victory -- even as
he insisted such a decision would be a "mistake"-- as he spent his Thanksgiving
renewing baseless claims that "massive fraud" and crooked officials in
battleground states caused his election defeat.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave
the White House if the Electoral College formalizes President-Elect Joe Biden's
victory --- even as he insisted such a decision would be a "mistake" --- as he
spent his Thanksgiving renewing baseless claims that "massive fraud" and
crooked officials in battleground states caused his election defeat.
"Certainly I will. But you know that," Trump said Thursday when asked
whether he would vacate the building, allowing a peaceful transition of power
in January. But Trump --- taking questions for the first time since Election
Day --- insisted that "a lot of things" would happen between now and then that
might alter the results.
"This has a long way to go," Trump said, even though he lost.
The fact that a sitting American president even had to address whether or
not he would leave office after losing reelection underscores the extent to
which Trump has smashed one convention after another over the last three weeks.
While there is no evidence of the kind of widespread fraud Trump has been
alleging, he and his legal team have nonetheless been working to cast doubt on
the integrity of the election and trying to overturn voters' will in an
unprecedented breach of democratic norms.
Trump spoke to reporters in the White House's ornate Diplomatic Reception
Room after holding a teleconference with U.S. military leaders stationed across
the globe. He thanked them for their service and jokingly warned them not to
eat too much turkey, then turned to the election after ending the call. He
repeated grievances and angrily denounced officials in Georgia and
Pennsylvania, two key swing states that helped give Biden the win.
Trump claimed, despite the results, that this may not be his last
Thanksgiving at the White House. And he insisted there had been "massive
fraud," even though state officials and international observers have said no
evidence of that exists and Trump's campaign has repeatedly failed in court.
Trump's administration has already given the green light for a formal
transition to get underway. But Trump took issue with Biden moving forward.
"I think it's not right that he's trying to pick a Cabinet," Trump said,
even though officials from both teams are already working together to get
Biden's team up to speed.
And as he refused to concede, Trump announced that he will be traveling to
Georgia to rally supporters ahead of two Senate runoff elections that will
determine which party controls the Senate. Trump said the rally for Republican
Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would likely be held Saturday. The White
House later clarified he had meant Dec. 5.
One of the reasons Republicans have stood by Trump and his baseless claims
of fraud has been to keep his loyal base energized ahead of those runoffs on
Jan. 5. But Trump, in his remarks, openly questioned whether that election
would be fair in a move that could dampen Republican turnout.
"I think you're dealing with a very fraudulent system. I'm very worried
about that," he said. "People are very disappointed that we were robbed."
As for the Electoral College, Trump made clear that he will likely never
formally concede, even if he said he would leave the White House.
"It's gonna be a very hard thing to concede. Because we know there was
massive fraud," he said, noting that, "time isn't on our side."
"If they do," vote against him, Trump added, "they've made a mistake."
Asked whether he would attend Biden's inauguration, Trump said he knew the
answer but didn't want to share it yet.
But there were some signs that Trump was coming to terms with his loss.
At one point he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending
coronavirus vaccines. "Don't let him 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 plans to formally declare his candidacy to run
again in 2024 --- as he has discussed with aides --- Trump said he didn't "want
to talk about 2024 yet."
All states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on
Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8. States
have already begun that process, including Michigan, where Trump and his allies
tried and failed to delay the process, and Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Vote certification at the local and state level is typically a ministerial
task that gets little notice, but that changed this year with Trump's refusal
to concede and his unprecedented attempts to overturn the results of the
election through a fusillade of legal challenges and attempts to manipulate the
certification process in battleground states he lost.
Biden won by wide margins in both the Electoral College and popular vote,
where he received nearly 80 million votes, a record.
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