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President Donald Trump has publicly acknowledged for the first time that President-elect Joe Biden won the election, more than seven days after media outlets, including NBC News, called for Biden to run.
The president’s comments, posted in a seemingly offhand article on social media, come as his campaign continues to challenge election results in court and his administration delays formal transition processes. In subsequent tweets, Trump wrote that he would not concede.
The overt recognition of the defeat came on Twitter, in response to a message from the Fox News show “Watters’ World” which suggested that Biden “did not win” the presidency.
“He won because the election was rigged,” Trump wrote, repeating an allegation that was debunked by election officials across the country and his own Department of Homeland Security.
Shortly after writing that Biden won, however, Trump wrote in another post that he conceded “NOTHING” and claimed that “WE WILL WIN!”
“He only won in the eyes of FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” Trump wrote.
The flurry of tweets comes as the president continues to argue without evidence that the election was rigged against him, energizing his base even if defeated.
Thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington on Saturday to protest the results. At least 20 people have been arrested after pro-Trump groups clashed with counter-protesters.
A White House official, when asked if Trump admits defeat, told NBC News: “It looks like it.” The official added that this may have been the start of Trump’s presidential concession.
Biden’s transition team did not immediately provide a comment.
To date, over 97% of the expected votes for the 2020 race have been totaled. NBC News predicts that Biden will get 306 electoral votes, compared to 232 for Trump. It takes 270 electoral votes to win.
Biden also leads Trump in the popular vote by a margin of over 5 million votes, although the popular vote is not legally meaningful.
The importance of the President’s recognition was not immediately clear, especially given his subsequent revisions.
Trump’s re-election campaign continues to pursue lawsuits across the country to slow the process of voter certification in key states or to challenge electoral processes. Most of these efforts have so far been unsuccessful.
His administration has yet to announce official recognition of Biden’s victory, resulting in a millions of dollars delay in funding and providing other government resources for the transition effort.
General Service Administration Administrator Emily Murphy must sign the documents for the transition process to begin. The GSA did not return an email requesting comment. A Biden transition official told NBC News they had not received any updates on the GSA process on Sunday morning.
The Biden team continued to push the transition effort forward despite the Trump administration’s blockade. On Wednesday, Biden appointed a longtime adviser, Ron Klain, to be his chief of staff. Biden is expected to start filling other roles in the coming weeks.
The former vice president projected confidence that the president’s efforts would not impede the peaceful transition of power.
The Democratic team has repeatedly said in response to inquiries on the matter: “The United States government is perfectly capable of escorting intruders out of the White House.”
Biden called Trump’s refusal to concede an “embarrassment” on Tuesday, but said it would not slow down the transition.
“We have already started the transition; we are well on the way,” he told a press conference in Delaware.
Republicans have been slow to recognize Biden’s victory, although there has been some movement in that direction in recent days. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Notably, has yet to refer to Biden as president-to-be.
GOP Meaning. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Sasse of Nebraska congratulated Biden on his victory, as did the last Republican to hold the office, former President George W. Bush.
Senior Republicans including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota and James Lankford of Oklahoma have been pushing for Biden to have access to the sessions. classified information.
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