WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump worked Sunday to take back an apparent acknowledgement that Joe Biden won the White House and was making clear he would keep trying to overturn the election result.
Trump’s earlier comments had given some critics and supporters hope that the White House was ready to begin working on a transition with Biden’s team. Not so fast, Trump would soon assure.
Trump, without using Biden’s name, said that “He won” as part of a tweet that made claims about a “rigged” election. But as the president saw how his comments were being interpreted as his first public acknowledgment of a Biden victory, Trump quickly reversed course.
“He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” Trump subsequently tweeted. “I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!”
Election officials from both political parties stated publicly that the election went well, and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities. Trump’s campaign has tried to mount legal challenges across the country, but many of the lawsuits have been thrown out and none has included any evidence that the outcome might be reversed.
Biden defeated Trump by winning back a trio of battleground states: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and topped the 270 electoral vote threshold to clinch the presidency. Biden so far has 78.8 million votes, the most ever by a winning candidate, to Trump’s 73.1 million.
“If the president’s prepared to begin to recognize that reality, that’s positive,” Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Still, Klain said, “Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that.”
A Republican governor, Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson, said “it was good, actually” to see Trump’s tweet that Biden won. “I think that’s the start of an acknowledgment. … We want to make sure that there is a smooth transition,” Hutchinson said on NBC.
Nearly two weeks after Election Day, Trump has neither called Biden nor made a formal concession, and White House officials have insisted that they are preparing for a second term.