Whereas First Lady Melania and son-in-law Jared Kushner said to be in favor of accepting loss, sons Don Jr. and Eric are rallying support to challenge results
While some members of US President Donald Trump’s family are said to be trying to convince him to accept that he lost the election to his Democrat rival, others are reportedly pushing him to continue his strategy of dismissing the results as fraudulent.
Trump has been spending time at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, and sources said that while he privately has not denied the election loss, he is urging attorneys to raise legal challenges as a way of delaying the formal authorization of the results, CNN reported.
After nearly four tortured days of counting yielded a victory for President-elect Joe Biden, Trump was still insisting Sunday that the race was not over. He has thrown out baseless allegations that the election was not fair and “illegal” votes were counted, promised a flurry of legal action, and fired off all-caps tweets falsely insisting he had “WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT.”
First Lady Melania Trump has advised her husband to accept the election defeat, CNN reported, even as she publicly backed the president’s claims, tweeting: “The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal — not illegal — vote should be counted. We must protect our democracy with complete transparency.”
Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has told others that he is among those who have urged the president to accept the outcome of the race — even if Trump will not come to terms with how it was reached.
However, a Trump campaign spokesman denied in a tweet Sunday that Kushner had approached the president, tweeting, “This story is not true. Given undetermined electoral outcomes in multiple states and serious voting irregularities and lack of transparency in others, Jared has advised @realDonaldTrump to pursue all available legal remedies to ensure accuracy.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have urged their father to keep fighting and challenged Republicans to stand with them.
The sons have been telling people that they really believe the vote was fraudulent, according to CNN.
While some in his circle were nudging Trump to concede graciously, many of his Republican allies, including on Capitol Hill, were egging him on or giving him space to process his loss — at least for the time being.
Among those supporting Trump in his rejection of the results is his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The former New York mayor has been promising to provide the president with the evidence of voter fraud, but has produced little, including during a press conference he held Saturday in the parking lot of a small Philadelphia landscaping company next to an adult bookstore.
“We have no way of knowing, because we’ve been deprived of the right to inspect ballots,” he said.
More support has come from congressional allies like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“Trump has not lost,” Graham declared in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” rejecting the reality of the situation. “Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard,” he urged.
“What I would tell President Trump is: Don’t give up. My advice is do not concede,” said Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona in a podcast interview. “Let’s fight this thing through. It is too important to give up.”
There has reportedly been no communication between the two rival campaigns since Biden’s victory became apparent.
Biden, meanwhile, has called on the country to come together.
“For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple of times myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance,” he said in his Saturday night victory speech.
Trump, whose voluminous Twitter account seems to provide an apt entry for any occasion, offered this advice in 2016: “Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: “In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity,” So true!”
As reported by The Times of Israel