President Donald Trump on Thursday said it’s ‘very hard thing to concede’ the election but admitted he would leave the White House for Joe Biden when the time came.
He wouldn’t say if he would attend his rival’s inauguration.
‘It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud,’ Trump said at the White House.
But he said he would leave if the time came.
‘Certainly I will. And you know that,’ Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he’ll leave on Inauguration Day in peaceful transition of power.
He took his first questions from the media since the election was held.
In his 25 minute back-and-forth with the media, Trump reiterated unproven conspiracy theories about voting machines changing votes for him to vote for Biden, complained the election was ‘rigged’ and alleged Biden only got his record 80 million votes through ‘massive fraud.’
Trump is trying to over throw the election results by going to court in battleground states but his legal cases have been going no where. A hand recount in Georgia confirmed Biden’s win there and states have begun certifying results.
‘Time isn’t on our side,’ the president conceded.
And when asked if he’d go to Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, Trump replied: ‘I don’t want to say that yet. I mean I know the answer, I’ll be honest, I know the answer, but I just don’t want to say it yet.’
And he said it would be a ‘mistake’ for the Election College to elect Biden when they meet on December 14.
‘If they do they made a mistake,’ the president said.
President Donald Trump on Thursday said it’s ‘very hard thing to concede’ the election but admitted he would leave the White House for Joe Biden when the time came
Trump wouldn’t say if he would attend rival Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20th
He warned that ‘a lot of things happening between now and January 20th’ and the election results have a ‘long way’ to go.
Trump repeated a conspiracy theory pushed by members of his legal team that votes from machines from Dominion Voting Systems lost votes for him or switched votes from him to Biden.
Dominion said there was no problem with their machines nor is there any evidence of what Trump alleges.
‘We’re using computer equipment that can be hacked,’ he said.
‘We’re like a third world country. We have machines that nobody knows what the hell they’re looking at. I mean you take a look at all the mistakes they made,’ he complained.
‘This election was a fraud, just so you understand this election was a fraud,’ he said.
He said there was proof of what he was talking about on the internet.
‘If you look, just take a look anywhere on the internet. You will see many, many people where they’re experimenting with this stupid machinery. Wherever you send it a certain way the votes go from Trump to Biden,’ Trump said.
President Donald Trump on Thursday took his first questions from reporters after the election
President Trump made his remarks after he spoke to U.S. troops for the Thanksgiving holiday
President Trump started his Thanksgiving with a round of golf
The president has refused to concede the election even as his legal cases challenging the results in battleground states have gone nowhere, his campaign has turned up no evidence of major voter fraud, and states have begun to certify Biden’s victory.
‘I know one thing Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes,’ he said. ‘The only way he got 80 million votes is through massive fraud.’
The current tally of the popular votes stand at: 80,045,066 (51%) for Biden and 73,897,658 (47%) for Trump. Additionally, Biden has 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.
The president spoke to reporters after he made a Thanksgiving teleconference call with troops serving overseas.
‘You have to really take a look at what’s going on. They’re finding tremendous discrepancies in the votes, and nobody believes those numbers those numbers are incorrect numbers,’ he said of the vote tallies.
He provided no evidence of his claim. State officials have said they’ve found no evidence of election fraud in the November contest.
‘I thought I was going to win it, and essentially I did win it. It’s very very close, it’s very very close,’ he said.
The election results are not close. Biden has 306 electoral votes and only needs 270 to win the presidency.
He played coy when asked about his own Thanksgiving plans for his last one at the White House, saying he ‘can’t say what’s first or last.’ He added that it might be the ‘first one of a second term.’
And he criticized Biden for moving ahead in forming a new government.
‘I think it’s not right he’s trying to pick a Cabinet,’ Trump said of Biden.
He also refused to talk about the next presidential contest, which associates have said he’s considering running in.
‘I don’t want to talk to 2024 yet,’ he said.