President Donald Trump has shown no indication that he’s willing to concede the 2020 election any time soon, no matter his definitive loss. He has baselessly alleged that some kind of systematic fraud plagued the electoral process, but his allegations just are not based in reality. The Department of Homeland Security itself has confirmed as much, recently characterizing the 2020 election as the “most secure in American history.” In a new interview, former President Barack Obama spotlights the destructive ramifications of the outgoing president’s refusal to admit to his loss.
As Obama noted, there’s no recent precedent for U.S. presidents refusing to concede an election or throwing a fit when an election doesn’t go how they wanted. After his own first win, the Bushes welcomed Obama to the White House. After Trump won in 2016, Obama did the same, hosting the then-President-elect at the White House.
Obama poignantly observed as follows:
‘When Donald Trump won, I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning and I then called Donald Trump to congratulate him. His margin of victory over Hillary Clinton wasn’t greater than Joe Biden‘s margin over him. But if you are listening to some of the talk radio that Trump voters are listening to, if you’re watching Fox News, if you’re getting these tweets, those allegations are presented as facts. So you’ve got millions of people out there who think, “Oh yeah, there must be cheating because the president said so.”‘
Memorably enough, Biden is actually on track to win the exact same number of electoral votes that Donald Trump won in 2016. Trump and his allies frequently praised Trump’s electoral college win as monumental (although Obama earned higher electoral vote totals during both of his presidential campaigns). Trump and his allies were ready and eager to accept and tout the results of the 2016 election — but this time around, they’re putting desperation on display. How else could one explain the Trump team’s recent claim that a so-called “whistleblower” saw people fraudulently preparing ballots in a van marked with Biden/ Harris signage in plain sight? Trump is pushing nonsensical clownery.
On CBS, Obama added as follows:
‘Well, look: Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next vice president. There’s no legal basis [for Trump’s challenges]… [Republicans] obviously didn’t think there was any fraud going on because they didn’t say anything about it for the first two days. But there’s damage to this because what happens is that — the peaceful transfer of power, the notion that any of us who attain an elected office, whether it’s dogcatcher or president, are servants of the people. It’s a temporary job. We’re not above the rules. We’re not above the law. That’s the essence of our democracy.’
Watch Obama below:
WATCH: Former President @BarackObama tells @CBSThisMorning co-host @GayleKing it was "disappointing" to see Republicans supporting President Trump's baseless claims that the election was rigged.
More on @CBSSunday and @60minutes with @ScottPelley. pic.twitter.com/9GP6PJdDY3
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) November 13, 2020
Top Trump ally Rudy Giuliani cut to the core of the Trump team’s allegations during a recent appearance on Fox, where he claimed, ludicrously, that an “order” could have come from the top for Democratic officials to fabricate Biden votes. This claim has no connection to reality — it’s frantic conjecture.
