Donald Trump has finally conceded defeat in the 2020 presidential election, almost a month after the election took place, kind of.
Taking questions from the press for the first time since the election, Donald Trump said that it was a “very hard thing to concede”, but that he would leave the White House when the presidency transitions to Joe Biden.
Just days after he finally allowed for the US government to start working with the Biden transition team – which means that President-elect Biden can receive the necessary intelligence briefings before taking office – he said that he would leave office if Biden is confirmed in the Electoral College, seemingly accepting the result.
Electoral College delegates will vote for the candidate who won the election in their state, and in many states are bound to do so by law, making it very unlikely that ‘faithless electors’ who do not follow the result of their state, could upset the Electoral College vote.
Speaking to reporters he said;
“It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud”.
This was despite once again producing no evidence.
The President has seen more than 20 lawsuits fail in the month after the election, with results having now been certified across a number of the key battleground states that Biden carried in the election; there are no avenues left for Trump to go down.
Trump’s only remaining strategy to remain in the White House would be to barricade himself in and refuse to come out, however, when questioned on whether he would leave the Oval Office come January 20th he said: “Certainly I will. And you know that.”
However, he would not say whether he would attend the inauguration; if he does not, he will only be the fourth president not to attend their successor’s inauguration (not including those who died in office and, for obvious reasons, could not attend their successors inauguration).
Trump was also coy on his future plans. When asked about whether he was considering a run in the future he said: “I don’t want to talk to 2024 yet”, somewhat confirming the reported leaks that he had privately accepted the result some weeks ago, and wanted to run again in 2024. He would be only the third president to run again after leaving office, with Grover Cleveland serving two non-consecutive terms, and Teddy Roosevelt unsuccessfully mounting a comeback with his newly created ‘Bull Moose Party’, after he was left unsatisfied by the successor he had groomed to replace him, William Howard Taft.
He did, however, suggest that he has not given up hope, saying that the Electoral College would be making a “big mistake” if they elected Biden on 14th December, when state’s electors will officially cast the presidential ballots and the US President is elected.
He went on to say;
“A lot of things happening between now and January 20th.”
He was potentially hinting at more legal challenges in the coming two months, but it now seems that – finally – Trump has accepted that come January 21st, he will no longer be the occupant of the White House, and that the man he dubbed “sleepy Joe”, will become the 46th President of the United States.
