Trump says he’ll leave if electors choose Biden

Despite vow to exit, president continues baseless claims of fraud

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College formalized Joe Biden’s election as president, even as he reiterated baseless claims of fraud that he said would make it “very hard” to concede.

Taking questions from reporters for the first time since Election Day, Trump also threw himself into the battle for Senate control, saying he would soon travel to Georgia to support Republican candidates in two runoff elections scheduled there on Jan. 5.

When asked whether he would leave office in January after the Electoral College cast its votes for Biden on Dec. 14 as expected, Trump replied: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will.”

Speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House after a Thanksgiving video conference with members of the U.S. military, the president insisted that “shocking” new evidence about voting problems would surface before Inauguration Day. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,” he said, “because we know that there was massive fraud.”

But even as he continued to deny the reality of his defeat, Trump also seemed to acknowledge that his days as president were numbered.

“Time is not on our side,” he said, in a rare admission of weakness.

“He also complained that what he referred to, prematurely, as “the Biden administration” had declared its intention to scrap his “America First” foreign policy vision.

The president was also strikingly testy at one point, lashing out at a reporter who interjected during one of his several rambling statements about the supposedly fraudulent election.

“You’re just a lightweight,” Trump snapped, raising his voice and pointing a finger in anger. “Don’t talk to me that — don’t talk — I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”

If Trump sees the end of his presidency as inevitable, he clearly still believes he can bolster his legacy — and badly undermine Biden, the man who is ending it — by helping to preserve a Republican Senate that could serve as a wall against the new Democratic agenda.

The election results left Democrats holding 48 seats in the Senate.

If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic challengers in Georgia, can both pull off victories over Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, their party will gain de facto control of a Senate divided 5050 because Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris would wield a tie-breaking vote.

Asked whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration, as is customary for a departing president, Trump was coy.

“I don’t want to say that yet,” the president said, adding, “I know the answer, but I just don’t want to say.”