Trump’s refusal to concede the US election to Biden is the last thing COVID-ravaged US needs
Nobody expected the 45th president to observe every protocol, but Donald Trump’s refusal to concede is only putting the US at greater risk, writes Sarah Blake.
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World leaders have called with congratulations, he’s given his victory speech and tens of thousands of Americans have turned out for spontaneous street parties.
But from the current inhabitant of the White House, President Elect Joe Biden has received nothing but angry silence, a few nasty tweets and lawyers’ threats of more legal challenges.
Donald Trump has telegraphed for months that he wouldn’t go easy and nobody expected the norm-shattering 45th president to observe every protocol.
But there is still something shocking about the bitterness of his reaction, especially when contrasted with the words of unity and healing from the other side.
Back in May, when the first coronavirus wave was overwhelming emergency departments and states were begging for federal help in the US, Trump clearly stated that he felt Democrat states shouldn’t get as much funding as those that voted for him.
It was confirmation of his basest political motivations, but after three years of pitting Americans against each other it was the sort of thing we had come to expect.
It was also diametrically opposed to the message that came from the other side last night, when both Mr Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke directly to Trump’s supporters.
“To those who voted for President Trump, I understand your disappointment tonight,” Mr Biden said.
“I’ve lost a couple of elections myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, to lower the temperature. We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. They are not our enemies, they are Americans.
“Folks, I’m a Democrat … but I will work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as those who did.”
The reality is that this race was tight, far closer than pollsters and Democrats had predicted. It’s too much to say that what that means is that one half of America hates the other half, but sometimes it can feel like that.
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Those close to Donald Trump are reportedly losing patience with his refusal to accept defeat or to stump up meaningful evidence of the voter fraud he’s alleging.
Weekend editorials in the newspapers he doesn’t slam so often as “fake news”, such as the Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, called on him to concede in order to preserve his legacy and his chances of another run in 2024.
He was golfing yesterday when the race was called and was photographed looking angry as he left his Virginia golf course.
Let’s hope it wasn’t a harbinger of trouble for months to come.
An exhausted America doesn’t need to fight a second war on top of disastrously spiralling COVID cases that are already threatening a dark winter for so many.