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- Trump does not plan to concede the race to the White House even though President-elect Joe Biden has already been projected win, sources said.
- The president continued to push ahead with several lawsuits in a last-minute effort to halt states’ vote counts or contest results.
- However, according to multiple news reports, aides have become frustrated about what they see as a “slapdash legal effort” that has not been prepared enough.
- Trump’s continual false claims about voter fraud and a stolen election have reportedly also made some aides uncomfortable, who are slowly distancing themselves from the campaign.
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- President Trump does not plan to concede the race to the White House any time soon despite Joe Biden’s expected win, sources close to the president said.
- Earlier Friday, Insider and Decision Desk HQ projected President-elect Biden to win the election after picking up the state of Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes.
- But even though Trump’s path to victory is diminishing rapidly, the president has continued to push ahead with several lawsuits in a last-minute effort to halt states’ vote counts or contest results.
- “In talking to sources on the campaign, they have said that the president does not have any plans to succeed,” Meredith McGraw, Politico White House reporter, told CBS News on Friday.
- “There is a recognition that this is a real uphill battle,” McGraw added.
- Another senior advisor asked by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) whether they expect the president to concede in the next few days replied via text message, writing only: “Lol.”
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Chris Christie speaks with Rudy Giuliani before President Donald Trump arrives for a news conference in the Briefing Room of the White House on September 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. Joshua Roberts/Getty Images
- Other aides have reportedly said they expect the president to let his campaign’s legal efforts play out before conceding the race, adding that the president’s mood has been “black” over the last few days, WSJ reported.
- According to WSJ, there is also mounting frustration among aides about what many see as a “slapdash legal effort”, complaining that there wasn’t enough planning ahead of Election Day and that there was confusion about who was in charge of the strategy.
- On Thursday night, aides, led by the White House counsel Pat Cipollone, urged the president to recognize that a legal campaign had no hope of overturning Biden’s lead among voters. Trump showed little interest in their advice, reported the WSJ.
- Some have also questioned the Trump team’s decision to dispatch Rudy Giuliani and sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., across the country to defend the president and continue to make unfounded allegations of voter fraud.
- In a written statement on Friday afternoon, Trump reiterated his intention to push forward with litigation, claiming: “This is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process.”
- “We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee the American people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation,” he added.
- The president’s continual false claims of a stolen election have reportedly made some aides uncomfortable and are prompting them to quietly backing away from him.
- Others are now looking to the 2024 campaign and focusing their ambitions on the future’s political battles, CNN reported.
- “It’s over,” one key advisor to the Trump administration said of the race, while another said that Trump “is mostly alone here,” according to CNN.
- There is also a growing concern that someone will eventually have to break the news to the president that his time in office is likely coming to an end.
- Read more:
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- Trump aides reportedly had to explain to the president that his demand to ‘STOP THE COUNT’ would actually guarantee his loss
- ‘This is not American democracy as people normally see it’: BBC presenter delivers a brutal assessment of Trump’s behavior as election votes are being counted in the US
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