Trump acknowledges Biden victory before clarifying he's not conceding
Washington — President Trump appeared to recognize President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential race, but quickly sought to clarify that he still has no intention of conceding the election as his long-shot legal bids aimed at challenging the results in several states continue.
In a pair of tweets Sunday, Mr. Trump continued to falsely claim there was widespread fraud in the general election, despite no evidence that was the case, and said that led to Mr. Biden's win over him. With the presidential race in every state now called, Mr. Biden secured 306 electoral votes over the president's 232, and the president-elect leads Mr. Trump by more than 5.5 million votes.
"He won because the Election was Rigged," the president tweeted, circulating baseless claims about Dominion Voting Systems, a technology firm whose software was used in Michigan and Georgia, and Republican poll watchers.
Mr. Trump then clarified in a second tweet that he does not, in fact, believe Mr. Biden defeated him in the presidential election.
"He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!" the president tweeted.
Despite Mr. Trump's unfounded claims that the election was rigged, federal stakeholders focused on elections infrastructure said in a statement Thursday that the November 3 election was "the most secure in American history."
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," the statement posted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said.
Still, the president's campaign continues to pursue legal challenges to the results in several states, though they are highly unlikely to change the outcome of the election. Mr. Biden is moving forward with his transition despite Mr. Trump's unwillingness to acknowledge the results of the election, making key White House appointments and tapping policy experts to begin a government-wide review of federal agencies.
