Trump concedes defeat

ELECTORAL COLLEGE: PRESIDENT SAYS HE WILL LEAVE WHITE HOUSE

Disgruntled leader will serve only one term in office before Biden is inaugurated.

President Donald Trump said this week for the first time that he would leave the White House if Joe Biden is officially confirmed the winner of the US election, even as he railed against the “rigged” vote.

Trump has made an unprecedented attempt to defy the results of the election by refusing to concede, spreading wild theories about stolen ballots and launching baseless legal challenges that have been thrown out by courts.

Answering his first questions from reporters since the 3 November vote, the president moved closer to accepting that he would serve only one term in office before Biden is inaugurated on 20 January.

When asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College confirmed Biden’s victory, Trump said: “Certainly I will. And you know that.”

But “if they do, they made a

mistake”, he said. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede.”

The Electoral College, which determines the White House winner, will meet on 14 December to certify Biden’s victory, with Biden receiving 306 votes to Trump’s 232.

“This election was a fraud,”

Trump said, again without providing any evidence.

He described the US voting infrastructure as “like a Third World country”.

Earlier in the day he tweeted that “this was a 100% RIGGED ELECTION”, while on Wednesday

he called on his Republican supporters “to turn the election over.”

President-elect Biden has said that Americans “won’t stand” for attempts to derail the vote outcome and urged for Americans to unite to fight the worsening pandemic.