Washington Nov 11 : Donald Trump not conceding defeat in the US election is “an embarrassment” and that “will not help the President’s legacy,” President-elect Joe Biden has said, asserting that his transition plans have remained unaffected and he has started talking to world leaders.
Trump has declined to concede the closely-fought November 3 presidential race to Democrat Biden and is mounting legal fights in several states, but there has been no evidence of voter irregularities or widespread fraud in the election — billed as one of the most divisive and bitter in recent American history.
The president-elect was asked by a reporter on Tuesday what he thought of President Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat. “I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly,” Biden said in his hometown in Wilmington, Delaware. “The only thing that, how can I say this tactfully, I think it will not help the president’s legacy,” 77-year-old Biden said. The Trump administration’s refusal to initiate the transition process “does not change the dynamic at all in what we’re able to do,” Biden said.
“We don’t see anything that’s slowing us down, quite frankly,” he said. “At the end of the day, you know, it’s all going to come to fruition on January 20,” he added, referring to inauguration day.
“Between now and then my hope and expectation is that the American people do know and do understand that there has been a transition.
Even among Republicans…who voted for the president, I understand the sense of loss. I get that,” he said. Biden hoped that those who voted for him and those for Trump would come together. “I think they’re ready to unite and I believe we can pull the country out of this bitter politics that we’ve seen for the last five, six and seven years,” he said.
The President-elect said that he has already begun the transition. “We are well underway. The ability for the administration in any way by failure to recognise our win does not change the dynamic at all in what we’re able to do,” he said, noting that a day earlier he has announced his COVID-19 advisory board.
“We are moving along in a consistent manner, putting together our administration in the White House and reviewing who we’re going to pick for the cabinet positions…and nothing is going to stop that. “I’m confident that the fact that they are not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we’re able to do between now and January 20th,” he asserted. (PTI)
