WILMINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden yesterday called Donald Trump’s refusal to concede his US presidential election loss an “embarrassment”, but dismissed the stand-off as unimportant.
“I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly,” said Biden when asked what he thinks about Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat in the November 3 vote.
“How can I say this tactfully? I think it will not help the president’s legacy,” he told reporters in his Delaware hometown here.
A week after the election, Trump remains in the White House, pushing an alternate reality that he is about to win and filing suits alleging voter fraud that so far have been backed up by only the flimsiest evidence.
Biden, meanwhile, mostly ignored Trump.
“The fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning.”
The Democrat signalled that despite attempts by Trump to stymie his transition to power, he is increasingly a president in waiting.
In his latest exchanges with international leaders, he spoke yesterday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.
Asked what his message to them was, he said: “I’m letting them know that America is back. We’re going to be back in the game. It’s not America alone.”
Trump’s attempt to hold on to power has become all-consuming for a man who often makes a point of publicly mocking rivals as “losers”.
“WE WILL WIN!” the Republican tweeted early yesterday, referring to his so far unsuccessful suits.
“WATCH FOR MASSIVE BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE.”
Emphasising the atmosphere of intransigence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a testy news conference that he is preparing for “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”.
Since election day, Trump has made few public appearances, and seems to have all but shelved normal presidential duties.
His only known activities outside the White House have been to play golf twice over the weekend, after the results came in. – AFP, November 11, 2020
