Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted his first tacit acknowledgment of former Vice President Joe Biden’s election victory, but continued to claim the democratic election was “rigged” and fraudulent without providing any evidence and after other agencies have deemed the voting process one of the most secure in U.S. history.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted: ‘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!,” referring to Biden, who has been projected the winner of the election by dint of his Electoral College votes and hi more than five million popular-vote margin, according to the Associated Press.
Biden claimed 290 Electoral College votes and 78.6 million of the popular-vote tally, compared with 232 Electoral College votes for incumbent Trump and 72.9 million of the popular vote, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing AP data.
Biden’s victory in Electoral College voting was called last Saturday by a number of news organizations, confirmed by a number of other news organizations and reinforced by recent vote-counting efforts.
Twitter has tagged the president’s tweet as “disputed,” as it has designated a number of social-media messages from individuals or organizations that are deemed to contain misleading or disputed information, without evidence, representing stricter policies employed by such media platforms.
Trump’s reiteration of claims of a “rigged” voting come after a recent statement from the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, GCC, Executive Committee and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council, which confirmed the secureness of the vote process that came amid the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a historic number of mail-in ballots.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” read the statement from the GCC and election council.
Trump’s Sunday tweet also follows a gathering of thousands of supporters of the 45th president, who assembled in downtown Washington, D.C., on Saturday to protest the results of the election.
Waving American flags and chanting “four more years,” the protesters repeated unfounded allegations that the election had been marred by fraud.
On Friday, Trump, during remarks in the White House’s Rose Garden to discuss progress on vaccines to fight the novel strain of coronavirus, continued to refuse to concede the White House race to Biden, but seemed to imply the possibility that his administration may not be victorious in the end.
“Whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be—I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown,” Trump said as he discussed “Operation Warp Speed,” the public-private partnership that aims to accelerate development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Trump didn’t respond to reporters’ shouted questions about conceding the election on Friday.
Biden is expected to be sworn in as the 46th U.S. president on Jan. 20.
