‘Time will tell’: Trump stops short of conceding election defeat to Joe Biden

In his first public remarks, Donald Trump has come close to acknowledging he lost the US election | WATCH

US President Donald Trump came close but stopped just short of acknowledging he lost the November 3 election to Democrat Joe Biden and said “time will tell.”

Mr Trump, who has refused to concede he lost the election, was speaking at a briefing at the White House on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Ideally we won’t go to a lockdown,” he said. “I will not go. This administration will not be going to a lockdown.

“Hopefully, the, the whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell.”

Overnight, US networks projected that Biden won the state of Georgia, giving him 306 votes in the Electoral College that determines the White House winner.

Mr Trump won by the same margin in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, and has repeatedly referred to his own 306-vote victory as a “landslide.”

Mr Trump used his first public remarks since his election defeat last weekend to give an update on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and its roll out across the country.

He said it would be distributed to Americans free of charge within months.

Mr Trump outside the White House. Picture: AFP

“No medical breakthrough of this scope and magnitude has ever been achieved this quickly. And we’re very proud of it,” Mr Trump said during a White House press conference.

“Operation Warp Speed is unequalled and unrivalled anywhere else in the world.

“This far exceeds any and all expectations.”

Mr Trump said the vaccine would not be delivered to New York due to comments by Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has called the vaccine plan “flawed”.

“For political reasons, the governor decided to say – I don’t think it’s good politically – he wants to take his time with a vaccine, he doesn’t trust where the vaccine is coming from,” Mr Trump said.

“We won’t be delivering it to New York until we have authorisation to do so, and it pains me to say that.

“The governor will have to let us know when he’s ready for it. We can’t be delivering it to a state that won’t be giving it to its people immediately.

“He’s had some very bad editorials recently about this statement and what’s happened with respect to nursing homes. I hope he doesn’t handle this as badly as he’s handled the nursing homes.”

Mr Trump then stood by while several other speakers addressed the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic which has left more than 243,000 people dead in the United States.

Mr Trump then left the event in the White House Rose Garden without responding to reporters who were shouting questions such as, “When will you admit you lost the election, sir?”

The remarks were Mr Trump’s first since November 5, when he falsely claimed to have won and said the election was “rigged” against him.

With AFP