November 27, 2020, 11:19 AM
U.S. President Donald Trump refused to confirm whether he would attend the inauguration of Joe Biden as the next president, which is set for Jan. 20, 2021.
During a rare post-election press conference on Nov. 27 (Singapore time), CNN's White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins reported that Trump would not say if he would attend Biden's inauguration, even though he "knows the answer."
Trump won’t say if he will attend Biden’s inauguration. He says he knows the answer, but doesn’t want to say.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 26, 2020
Trump says he'll go
Trump's answers on his post-election future seemed contradictory.
On one hand, he said he would leave the White House if the electoral college votes for Biden and certifies him as the winner of the election.
The electoral college is due to meet and cast their votes in mid-December. Biden won 306 electoral college votes in the election, well over the 270 needed to win.
Trump says he'll stay
On the other hand, Trump said that if the electoral college voted for Biden, it would be a "mistake."
Trump also suggested that this would not be the last Thanksgiving holiday he would spend in the White House.
President Trump is taking his first questions since the day of the election. He’s alleging there was fraud in the election without evidence and says he’s going to Georgia Saturday to campaign ahead of the runoff. He says this may not be his last Thanksgiving in the White House.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 26, 2020
Trump's legal battle to overturn the election result has so far failed to achieve meaningful results.
According to NBC, of the 38 lawsuits filed by Trump's legal team, 26 have been denied, settled, withdrawn or dismissed.
No U.S. court has so far found a single instance of fraud, as alleged by the Trump team.
If Trump does not attend Biden's inauguration, he would be the first U.S. president not to attend his successor's inauguration since Richard Nixon, who resigned the presidency in 1974 and did not attend the inauguration of Gerald Ford.
Top image from Donald Trump's Facebook page.
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