US president Donald Trump said on Thursday he will leave the White House if the electoral college votes for president-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the election, even as he reiterated his unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.
Mr Trump said if Mr Biden – who is due to be sworn in on January 20th – is certified the election winner by the college, he will depart the White House.
But Mr Trump said it would be hard for him to concede under the current circumstances and declined to say whether he would attend Mr Biden’s inauguration. The electors are scheduled to meet on December 14th.
“This election was a fraud,” Mr Trump insisted, while offering no concrete evidence of such voting irregularities.
Mr Biden and Mr Trump both stayed close to home to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday as the coronavirus pandemic raged across the country.
Mr Biden spent the holiday in the small seaside town of Rehoboth, Delaware, where he and his wife Jill have a vacation home. The Bidens are hosting daughter Ashley Biden and her husband Howard Krein for the holiday meal.
Thanksgiving
The former vice-president, appearing with his wife in a video message posted to his Twitter account on Thanksgiving, said his family typically holds a large gathering on the island of Nantucket off Massachusetts, but would remain in Delaware this year “with just a small group around our dinner table” because of the pandemic.
In the presidential-style address to a nation that has lost more than 260,000 lives to the coronavirus, the Democratic president-elect said Americans were making a “shared sacrifice for the whole country” and a “statement of common purpose” by staying at home with their immediate families.
“I know this isn’t the way many of us hoped we’d spend our holiday. We know that a small act of staying home is a gift to our fellow Americans,” said Mr Biden. “I know better days are coming.”
President Trump often likes to celebrate holidays at his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida. But on Thursday he remained in the Washington area, spending part of the morning at his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia where he played a round of golf. – Reuters