President Trump on Thursday said it would be “very hard” to concede if the Electoral College elects Joseph R. Biden as the next president, insisting that the election results are “a massive fraud.”
“It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,” Mr. Trump said when reporters at the White House asked what he would do after an Electoral College vote for Mr. Biden. “If they do, they made a mistake.”
“No one wants to see the kind of fraud this election has come to represent,” he said. “I know one thing, Joe Biden didn’t get 80 million votes.”
Unofficial election results show Mr. Biden with more than 80 million votes nationwide to Mr. Trump’s nearly 74 million votes.
Mr. Biden is currently projected to win the Electoral College vote 306-232. A candidate needs 270 to win.
The Trump campaign launched lawsuit challenges of the ballot count in several battleground states, but all of the cases were either withdrawn or dismissed.
Several other courtroom battles are still playing out, though the window is rapidly closing for a reversal of the projected win for Mr. Biden.
Mr. Trump balked when asked if he would refuse to leave the White House.
“Certainly I will [leave], and you know that,” he said, though still insisting that “this was a massive fraud.”
Mr. Trump fielded the reporter’s questions while participating in a Thanksgiving teleconference with representatives of each of the armed forces, including Space Force.
While bracing for what increasingly looks like an inevitable victory for Mr. Biden when the Electoral College votes on Dec. 14, Mr. Trump also is fighting to keep a Republican majority in the Senate.
He is headed to Georgia, likely on Saturday, to help GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in runoff elections that will determine which party controls the upper chamber.
The president said Georgia voters are “very disappointed we were robbed” in the general election and recount that showed Mr. Biden won the state.
“You have a fraudulent system,” Mr. Trump said of Georgia.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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