Foreign
Trump not planning to publicly admit defeat even after Electoral College vote – Reports
U.S. President Donald Trump does not intend to publicly recognise the official results of the U.S. presidential election even after the Electoral College has declared Democrat Joe Biden as the president-elect, media reported.
CNN cited a source close to the White House.
At the same time, the channel reported some advisers saying that Trump did acknowledge in private that he would not be re-elected for a second term.
The Electoral College confirmed Biden as the next president on Monday, with 306 electoral votes against Trump’s 232.
The U.S. Congress will certify the results on Jan. 6.
Early, the U.S. Electoral College met on Monday and confirmed Democratic candidate Joe Biden as winner of the Nov.3 presidential election with 306 electoral votes compared to only 232 for President Trump.
Biden received nearly 81.3 million votes, or 51.3 per cent of all votes cast – more than any other U.S. politician has ever received in history.
Trump received 74 million votes, the second largest number in history. The previous record was held by former President Barack Obama with 69.5 million votes.
A clear majority of at least 270 electoral votes of the total of 506 available is necessary to elect a president.
Trump refused to accept the result, claiming widespread and systematic electoral fraud, an unprecedented action by a defeated candidate in the 232 years of the U.S. electoral system.
Also, Republicans in six battleground states of Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan held symbolic alternative voting meetings and gave their states votes – which would amount to 79 Electoral College votes in all, to Trump.
If those electoral vote meetings had been real and confirmed, it would have reversed the election result giving Trump a winning margin of 311 to 227 over Biden.
However, election officials in all six of those states including many Republican ones had confirmed the legitimacy and authenticity of the votes.
Judges in all states refused to find sufficient grounds to overthrow any of the outcomes and the Supreme Court refused to get involved, inspite having three justices appointed by Trump and a total of six conservative-leaning justices compared to three liberal ones.
Nevertheless, Biden himself acknowledged on Monday that the refusal of an outgoing president or defeated major candidate to acknowledge he had lost presented an unprecedented crisis in the U.S. political process.
“We’ve never seen it before, a position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law and refused to honour our constitution,” Biden said on Monday night.
Biden also gave thanks to the Supreme Court’s immediate action in validating his victory.
“Thankfully a unanimous Supreme Court immediately and completely rejected this effort.
“The court sent a clear signal to President Trump, that they would be no part in an unprecedented assault on our democracy.”
The electoral votes will now be sent to the U.S. Congress for verification at a joint session, the final stage of the election, scheduled for Jan. 6.
Federal lawmakers can raise objections given that Trump disputes the election claiming fraud and acts of impropriety robbed him of victory, but it would take a bicameral majority.
Trump has so far consistently signaled that he will continue to dispute the results.
But there is a general expectation that he will fail to overthrow any of the state-by-state results.
Contact: info@royalnews.com.ng
