JOE BIDEN
290
electoral college votes
74,872,570 votes
DONALD TRUMP
214
electoral
college votes
70,601,968
votes
Donald Trump refuses to concede defeat as
recriminations begin
Biden declared winner but president says: ‘This is far
from over’
Legal challenges threatened but experts doubt they
will succeed
Edward
Helmore in New York
Sat 7 Nov
2020 17.51 GMTLast modified on Sat 7 Nov 2020 19.44 GMT
Donald
Trump refused to formally concede the US election on Saturday, even as senior
Republicans began to distance themselves and as recriminations were reported
among aides to a president doomed to electoral defeat.
Before the
race was called on Saturday morning, Trump continued to tweet his defiance and
to attract censure from Twitter for making baseless claims about voter fraud
and his supposed victory.
He also
went to his course in Virginia to play golf. From there, he issued a defiant
statement.
“The simple
fact is this election is far from over,” he insisted. “Joe Biden has not been
certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested
states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid
and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.”
The
statement was of a piece with Trump’s previous tweets and statements, addressed
to the media and the nation since the election on Tuesday – angry, refusing to
admit defeat, and alleging improprieties by his opponent without providing
evidence.
“The
American people are entitled to an honest election,” Trump said. “That means
counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the
only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election.
“It remains
shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and
wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured or cast by
ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would
unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to
block their access.”
None of
what Trump alleged has been proved to be true.
Nonetheless,
Republican legal challenges to counts in key states were set to continue.
Leading the effort to marshal a legal force in the mould of that which led the
party to victory in the 2000 Florida recount were Jared Kushner, Donald Trump
Jr and his younger brother Eric Trump, and Rudy Giuliani.
“Beginning
Monday,” Trump added, “our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to
ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. So
what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American people have the honest
vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”
Trump’s
sons have railed in support of their father since election day but his most
visible daughter, Ivanka, has been largely quiet. Nowhere to be seen is an army
of lawyers of the size – and skill – that would be needed to add muscle to
president’s claims of a rigged election.
Trump’s
failure to assemble a coherent legal team – and raise as much as $60m to fund
legal challenges to stop vote counts in some swing states and continue them in
others – was in many ways a reflection of previous failures among the small
circle of mostly family advisers he has kept around him since winning power in
2016.
The
challenge to Biden’s victory was placed in the hands of Trump’s personal
lawyer, Giuliani, and Jay Sekulow, an attorney who defended the president
during the Mueller investigation and the impeachment process. Giuliani, a
former New York mayor, played a high-profile role, dispatched to Philadelphia
to demand Republican operatives be granted greater oversight over the count.
But legal analysts dismissed Trump lawsuits and legal maneuverings as having
little to no merit.
At the
White House, Trump advisers reportedly raised the prospect of electoral defeat,
and how the president should handle it. According to the Washington Post, some
close to Trump have advocated that when Biden was declared the winner, Trump
should offer public remarks icommitting to a peaceful transfer of power.
One senior
campaign aide, however, said there had been no discussion of a formal
concession speech.
Before
Biden’s win was called, some of Trump’s usual supporters in the media had begun
to melt away. Late on Friday, the Fox News host Laura Ingraham, one of Trump’s
most ardent loyalists, advised the president to “accept defeat” with “grace and
composure”.
“If and
when it’s time to accept an unfavorable outcome in this election, and we hope
it never comes, President Trump needs to do it with the same grace and
composure that he demonstrated at that town hall with Savannah Guthrie,”
Ingraham said, referring to the host of an event in October hosted by NBC.
Ingraham
also railed at Trump’s “failed” political consultants and campaign officials
who she said “blew through hundreds of millions of dollars without the legal
apparatus in place to challenge what we all knew was coming.
“Why aren’t
the best lawyers in America on television night after night explaining the
president’s legal claims?” Ingraham asked.
The New
York Post also changed its tune. In October, the paper called Trump “an
invincible hero, who … survived every dirty trick the Democrats threw at him”.
But on Thursday, Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid published two articles, one that
accused Trump of making an “unfounded claim that political foes were trying to
steal the election” and another that described Don Jr as “panic-stricken”.
Support
from Republicans in Congress was notably tepid, party leaders playing both
sides. On Friday, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said only:
“Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not.
All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the
laws and resolve disputes.”
The South
Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said he was standing by Trump’s claims of vote
rigging – but also said Biden “deserves” to have his choice of cabinet members
confirmed by the legislators.
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