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Donald Trump says he will leave White House if Electoral College votes for Joe Biden

  • The comments are the closest the US president has come to conceding his loss in the 2020 election
  • The Electoral College is due to meet on December 14, and Biden is set to be inaugurated on January 20

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US President Donald Trump gets out of a golf cart at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, on Thursday. Photo: AP
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the November 3 election, even as he repeated unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.
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Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden – who is due to be sworn in on January 20 – is formally declared the winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House.

Asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, Trump said: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will. And you know that.”

03:05

‘You’re just a lightweight, I’m the president’: Donald Trump spars with reporters

‘You’re just a lightweight, I’m the president’: Donald Trump spars with reporters

But Trump said it would be hard for him to concede because “we know there was massive fraud”.

“It was a rigged election … at the highest level,” Trump insisted in a sometimes rambling discourse at the White House, while continuing to offer no concrete evidence of widespread voting irregularities.

It was the first time Trump has taken questions from reporters since Election Day, and at times he turned combative.

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