As lawsuits continue to be filed, Trump runs up flag for 2024

As his lawyers continue the 2020 fight, Donald Trump openly muses about second run at the US presidency in 2024.

Rudy Giuliani fights the election result in Lansing, Michigan, on Thursday. Picture: AFP

A month after his election defeat to Joe Biden, Donald Trump is openly musing about a second run at the US presidency in 2024.

Refusing to accept defeat, Mr Trump’s lawyers and supporters continued on Thursday AEDT to file lawsuits and even call for extraordinary intervention, such as martial law, to force a new vote.

And Mr Trump released a 46-minute video in which he again claimed that he was robbed of victory in a “rigged” election.

But at a White House Christmas party on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), Mr Trump suggested he might have lost this battle, but would not retire quietly as a one-term president.

“It’s been an amazing four years. We are trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years,” he told guests.

The comment was perhaps the closest the 74-year-old has come to admitting his month-long quest to reverse Mr Biden’s win has failed All six contested states have now certified their tallies, and the national count gives Mr Biden nearly seven million more votes than Mr Trump, an insurmountable four percentage-point margin.

On Tuesday Attorney-General William Barr said the Justice Department had found no significant evidence of fraud in the election.

Mr Biden, 78, meanwhile continued to prepare for taking office on January 20, telling The New York Times in an interview how he plans to revive the economy.

“I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing in America first,” he said.

Mr Trump still refuses to publicly concede his defeat on November 3, forcing him from office after one term. He has remained shuttered in the White House, limiting his public appearances, and apparently holding few official meetings, while issuing furious tweets about alleged election fraud.

But according to reports he is preparing his exit, holding discussions about issuing pre-emptive pardons for three of his children — Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka — for Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, and his own personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. On Wednesday he released on Twitter a formal address on the election. “This may be the most important speech I’ve ever made,” he began. He recited a litany of complaints about the election, saying the Democrats used the COVID-19 crisis to force widespread use of mailed ballots, which he said were fraudulently manipulated to support Mr Biden.

“This election was rigged, everybody knows it,” he said. “It is statistically impossible that the person, me, who led the charge, lost. We have so much evidence.

Supporters continued to fight against the results. Mr Giuliani appeared before Michigan’s state legislature to present his claims of irregularities. In Georgia, another lawyer tied to the Trump campaign, Sidney Powell, spoke to a rally of supporters claiming their votes were not counted.

The campaign to delay and litigate the election results, though, was turning in discomfiting directions.

In Georgia, which still faces another vote on two hotly-contested US Senate seats in early January, officials said Mr Trump’s rhetoric was dangerous, stoking potential violence against officials.

“Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed. It’s not right,” voting system manager Gabriel Sterling said.

And two retired three-star generals, including Mr Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, called for Mr Trump to declare martial law and have the military supervise a new election.

Mr Trumps planned to head to Georgia on Saturday to campaign beside the two Republican Senate candidates, key to the party retaining control of the US Senate.

According to NBC News, Mr Trump has discussed the possibility with his close aides of launching his 2024 campaign on January 20, the day Mr Biden is to be inaugurated as president.

In theory, nothing prevents another run. The US constitution restricts presidents to two four-year terms, but does not require they be consecutive. But only one president did so: Grover Cleveland, in the late 19th century.

AFP