Trump admits Biden won, but still won’t concede after falsely claiming election was ‘rigged’

President Donald Trump acknowledged publicly for the first time that President-elect Joe Biden won the election, more than seven days after media outlets including NBC News called the race for Biden.

The president’s comments, made in a seemingly offhand post on social media, come as his campaign continues to challenge the results of the election in court and as his administration holds up formal transition processes.

In subsequent tweets, Trump wrote that he would not concede.

The ostensible acknowledgement of defeat came on Twitter, in response to a post by the Fox News show “Watters’ World” that suggested that Biden “didn’t earn” the presidency.

“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump wrote, repeating an allegation that has been debunked by election officials around the country and his own Department of Homeland Security.

Shortly after writing that Biden had won, though, Trump wrote in another post that he conceded “NOTHING” and claimed that “WE WILL WIN!”

“He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” Trump wrote.

The flurry of tweets come as the president continues to argue without evidence that the election was rigged against him, energizing his base even in defeat.

Thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to protest the results. At least 20 people were arrested after pro-Trump groups clashed with counterprotesters.

A White House official, when asked if Trump was admitting defeat, told NBC News: “It looks like it.” The official added that it may be the beginning of Trump conceding the presidential race.

Biden’s chief of staff, Ronald Klain, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” later on Sunday that he accepted the president’s post on Twitter “as a further confirmation of the reality that Joe Biden won the election.”

“If the president’s prepared to begin to recognize that reality, that’s positive,” Klain said. He added that “Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that.”

To date, more than 97% of the expected votes in the 2020 race have been tabulated. NBC News is projecting that Biden will snag 306 electoral votes, compared to Trump’s 232. It takes 270 electoral votes to win.

Biden also leads Trump in the popular vote by a margin of more than 5 million votes, though the popular vote is not legally significant.

The significance of the president’s acknowledgement was not immediately clear, particularly given his subsequent reversal.

Trump’s reelection campaign is continuing to pursue litigation around the country seeking to slow the process of election certification in key states, or otherwise challenge election processes. Most of those efforts have been unsuccessful so far.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/15/trump-admits-biden-won-falsely-claims-election-was-rigged.html