Kellyanne Conway, President Trump’s former adviser, counselor and campaign manager, became his latest ally to acknowledge his days in the White House are just about over during an interview Friday.
“The president wants to exhaust all of his legal avenues, as he has made clear many times, and his team is doing that,” Ms. Conway told The 19th, a news outlet. “And, of course, that is his right.”
However, Ms. Conway added the preliminary outcome of last month’s election suggest Mr. Trump was defeated by Democratic rival Joseph R. Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
“If you look at the vote totals in the Electoral College tally, it looks like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will prevail,” Ms. Conway, a longtime Republican strategist, said during the interview.
“I assume the electors will certify that and it will be made official,” Ms. Conway added.
Election Day took place on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and multiple news outlets began to call the race for Mr. Biden that Saturday, but Mr. Trump maintains the race was “rigged” and refused to concede so far.
Speaking nearly a month to the day since the race was called, Ms. Conway implied during the interview she was unaware of any evidence that would indicate the race was really won by Mr. Trump.
“I’m [sic] yet to see any big groundswell of vote tallies to push it in the other direction. And at the same time, I think the president has a right to exhaust his legal possibilities,” said Ms. Conway.
Indeed, lawyers for Mr. Trump and his campaign have mounted a number of legal challenges in recent weeks over his projected loss to Mr. Biden. None have produced credible evidence of fraud, however.
Republicans led by Mr. Trump have largely refrained from splitting with the president with respect to the results of the race, with few members of the GOP acknowledging Mr. Biden to be its winner.
Only around one in ten Republicans in Congress have acknowledged Mr. Biden to be the president-elect, The Washington Post reported Saturday, citing a survey it took of House and Senate members.
Ms. Conway, 53, served as the third and final manager of Mr. Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2016. She subsequently served as White House counselor before resigning this past August.
Leaders of federal law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies said this week they saw no evidence of any fraud that would have changed the results of Mr. Trump’s race for reelection.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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