United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said for the first time that he will leave the White House if the electoral college confirms President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, CNN reported. Trump, however, added that he was not prepared to concede.
“Certainly I will, and you know that,” Trump said when a reporter asked him about leaving the White House if Biden is confirmed as the president in December. “I will and you know that.”
Trump again repeated his accusation of “massive voter fraud” in the elections and said that it would be tough for him to concede because of that. He claimed that it would be a mistake on the part of the electoral college to confirm Biden as president “cause this election was a fraud”.
This was the first time Trump answered questions from reporters since the election on November 3.
Biden has been projected to become the president with 306 electoral votes, against Trump’s tally of 232. He is likely to be confirmed by the electoral college on December 14 and sworn into office on January 20.
Trump, who has continued to deny his defeat in the election, on Monday agreed to allow the transition process to begin.
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Biden, meanwhile, named the members of his Cabinet. He nominated Anthony Blinken as the secretary of state and Avril Haines as the first woman director of national intelligence. Jake Sullivan was named the White House national security adviser, while Alejandro Mayorkas was nominated as the secretary of homeland security. Mayorkas will be the first person of Latin ethnicity to occupy the post.
The president-elect also named former Secretary of State John Kerry as special climate envoy. Kerry is considered to be one of the prominent architects of the Paris Climate Agreement and signed the accord in 2016.
Biden’s transition team had said that for the first time, the National Security Council will have an official exclusively focusing on climate change, according to CNN. The team added that the move reflected Biden’s commitment to “addressing climate change as an urgent national security issue”.
Biden had said last week that said Trump’s refusal to authorise an orderly transition of power ensured that he would be remembered as “one of the most irresponsible presidents in American history”. On November 17, Biden had warned that more Americans would die if incumbent President Donald Trump does not coordinate with his team to tackle the coronavirus.
Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits to challenge the election outcome. The incumbent US president continues to claim that there was a multi-state conspiracy by the Democrats to stop him from achieving a second term.
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