Trump will not concede election, Guiuliani says in Philadelphia

President Donald Trump does not plan to concede the presidential election, one of his top advisors said Saturday, minutes after major news networks called the race in Vice President Joe Biden’s favor. 

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared before reporters in Philadelphia shortly before noon Saturday to announce that the Trump campaign would instead bring a fresh salvo of lawsuits in battleground states including Pennsylvania, where lawyers would allege widespread fraud in mail-in voting and challenge the limitations some counties placed on campaign poll watchers. 

“Obviously Trump is not going to concede when at least 600,000 ballots are in question,” Giuliani said, referring to those counted in Democratic strongholds in Philadelphia and Allegheny County.

The Trump campaign began filing lawsuits in battleground states as Trump’s lead over Biden diminished in the days after the Nov. 3 election. Federal judges in Michigan and Georgia have already dismissed two this week. 

The president appeared to be in the lead on election night as counties reported results from in-person voting precincts, but his edge over Biden diminished as counties started tabulating mail-in ballots – a method of voting that’s favored by Democrats and has been assailed by Trump with baseless claims that it’s susceptible to fraud.

Giuliani claimed that the president could not have lost his election night lead “without corruption.” But the results of mail-in ballots were reported slowly because Pennsylvania is one of only four states that does not permit counties to open them on Election Day, and the Republican-controlled General Assembly did not reach an agreement with Gov. Tom Wolf to change that law before the election.