Trump says Biden ‘won’ election, then does a quick turnabout: ‘I concede nothing’
President Donald Trump acknowledged his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden for the first time on Sunday morning with the words “he won,” before quickly turning around and saying on Twitter he was not conceding the election.
In a series of tweets promoting baseless conspiracy theories, the president said that widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, software glitches and a lack of Republican poll watchers altered the outcome of the race. His campaign has filed lawsuits on those unsubstantiated claims.
“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump wrote.
But an hour later, the president sought to walk back the comment by insisting his words do not amount to a concession.
“He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!”
Trump was refusing to acknowledge Biden’s victory as recently as Friday, when in his first public remarks since losing the election, he said that “time will tell” which of the two of them would form a new administration in January.
Biden secured 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232. At least 270 are needed to win the presidency.
“I will not go — this administration will not be going to a lockdown,” Trump said Friday, addressing the acceleration of the pandemic across the country. “Hopefully the, whatever happens in the future — who knows which administration will be, I guess time will tell — but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.”
The Trump administration has not allowed the federal government to begin preparing for a transition to the incoming Biden administration, as the president’s campaign continues to battle the results of the election in court.
The president has resisted conceding to Biden since he passed the 270 Electoral College vote mark.
Biden continues to build out his transition team and on Friday met with his coronavirus advisers on the state of the pandemic.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 9:34 AM with the headline "Trump says Biden ‘won’ election, then does a quick turnabout: ‘I concede nothing’."
