Trump appears to acknowledge Biden’s win, but says won’t concede

PTI, Nov 16, 2020, 8:14 AM IST

Washington: For the first time, President Donald Trump on Sunday appeared to grudgingly acknowledge that his Democratic rival Joe Biden won the closely-fought race for the White House, but indicated that he would not concede and would keep trying to challenge the “rigged” election outcome.

The Republican president’s declaration comes as he and his administration continue to accuse Democrats of election fraud without evidence and impede the transition.

“He won because the Election was Rigged. 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!” Trump tweeted.

Unlike in India where election results are declared by the election commission, the results of the presidential elections are certified by each of the 50 states separately which takes weeks.

Based on the trends and unofficial results, news media outlets traditionally declare the results of the presidential elections, which sets the transition process.

As per latest count of the electoral college votes coming from all the 50 states, Biden has 306 of the 538 electoral college votes, which is well above the halfway mark of 270.

Trump, who has 232 electoral college votes, has challenged the election results in various states including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. He had demanded a recount in Wisconsin.

In all these states, he alleged there were massive voters’ fraud and electoral malpractice. News media outlets and officials of these states have said that there is no evidence of large-scale fraud.

“He (Biden) 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!” Trump said in another tweet.

Trump, 74, has refused to concede the election. The transition team of Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris says that the Trump administration is not cooperating with them in transition.

“RIGGED ELECTION. WE WILL WIN!” said Trump in another tweet.

On Thursday, US election officials said the 2020 presidential election was the “most secure in American history”, rejecting President Trump”s fraud claims.

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” said the Election Infrastructure Government Co-ordinating Council – which is made up of senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the US Election Assistance Commission as well as state-level officials who oversee elections and representatives of the voting machine industry.

Twitter flagged most of his tweets saying that his claim about the election fraud is disputed. Trump has a record of 88.9 million followers on Twitter.

“All of the mechanical “glitches” that took place on Election Night were really THEM getting caught trying to steal votes. They succeeded plenty, however, without getting caught. Mail-in elections are a sick joke!” said the president.

In another tweet, Trump alleged that the ongoing recount in Georgia is a scam.

“Doing a great job in Georgia. Their recount is a scam, means nothing. Must see fraudulent signatures which are prohibited by the stupidly signed and unconstitutional consent decree,” Trump alleged.