Washington, Nov 21: The Trump administration has done “everything statutorily required” to do in the event of a transition, the White House has said, asserting that a constitutional process is being played out to determine the winner of the November 3 presidential election.
Incumbent US President Donald Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede the election to 78-year-old Joe Biden, a Democrat, and has filed multiple lawsuits challenging the poll results in several states.
Trump, 74, has made allegations of widespread electoral fraud, without providing any evidence.
Former US vice president Biden was declared the winner of the closely-fought US presidential election on November 7. Biden now has 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 votes.
To win the race to the White House, the successful candidate should have at least 270 electoral votes out of the 538-member Electoral College.
His lead in the public vote overall stands at more than 5.9 million. Backing President’s Trump’s stance, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to acknowledge President-elect Biden’s victory in a press briefing on Friday— her first press briefing since October 1 and since President Trump lost the election.
“The president’s been very clear, he wants every legal vote to be counted,” McEnany said. She did not say when Trump would concede, but said there were “very real claims” of voter fraud without identifying any evidence.
“There is a Presidential Transition Act that determines exactly what an administration needs to do in advance of an election. And we have done everything statutorily required, and we will continue to do that,” McEnany asserted. Biden is set to take office on January 20 as the 46th US president.
Meanwhile, after a string of court defeats in his efforts to challenge the election results, Trump’s team is hoping to convince legislatures controlled by his fellow Republicans in key states to ignore the outcome and declare him the victor, according to multiple US media outlets. (PTI)
