Trump edges closer to conceding the election, then backs off

President Donald Trump has yet to concede the election, but on Sunday he briefly came close to acknowledging that he lost in a tweet.

“He won because the Election was Rigged,“ Trump tweeted. “NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!“

But an hour or so later, Trump made it clear he was not conceding, tweeting “RIGGED ELECTION. WE WILL WIN!“ and following it up with “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!“

Trump’s initial tweet was posted with a clip of Fox News’ Jesse Watters casting doubt on the outcome of the election.

In the 12 days since the election, Trump has consistently claimed victory, while baselessly asserting that Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats had cheated to make it appear that he won. Trump and his legal team have lost numerous court cases trying to prove their theories due to a lack of evidence.

Biden garnered 306 votes in the Electoral College, to Trump’s 232.

“We can either get drug down into this or we can transcend it as Americans,” said H.R. McMaster, Trump’s former national security adviser, of Trump’s baseless assertions. The retired lieutenant general was speaking on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on CNN.

Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, said ultimately Trump’s tweets on the election don’t matter.

“Donald Trump's Twitter feed doesn't make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that,“ he said on NBC‘s “Meet the Press.”