While President Trump insists on Twitter that ballots have been improperly counted and argues that President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory is premature, two sources told Fox News that Trump would concede and execute a peaceful transfer of power if his campaign’s legal challenges fall short of changing the projected outcome.
The Trump campaign has filed suits in several battleground states where Biden led by a razor-thin margin, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. It claimed instances of illegally counted votes from up after Election Day and that poll watchers were blocked from observing counting.
NYT:
The aides said Mr. Trump had no plans to immediately deliver the kind of concession speech that has become traditional in past presidential elections, and his campaign vowed to continue waging the legal battle across the country. In a statement issued while he was still on the golf course, Mr. Trump said Mr. Biden was trying to “falsely pose” as the winner.
“The simple fact is this election is far from over,” the president said, “Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”
Mr. Trump’s advisers said the president has refused to acknowledge that he has lost, maintaining his baseless accusation that Democrats had stolen the election.
But they do not believe he will try in any way to block Mr. Biden from taking office, and said that if he has not delivered a formal concession speech by the time he departs, pressure may mount on his Republican allies, family members and friends to convince him that he must give in to the inevitable and let the American people know that he accepts their judgment.
Even some of Mr. Trump’s oldest advisers, like former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, have said publicly that he needed to have actual evidence to make the claims he has been making about the election.
“This kind of thing, all it does is inflame without informing. And we cannot permit inflammation without information,” Mr. Christie said on ABC News on Thursday night.