Barack Obama slams Donald Trump for saying Joe Biden was 'cheating ' him when he had no 'legal' proof
On the brink of the release of his new memoir, former President Barack Obama is getting quite vocal with his critique of sitting President Donald Trump's refusal to concede to the 2020 presidential election that was called for Democrat rival Joe Biden last week. The former president criticized the current one for "refusing to concede" and "convincing millions of Americans that he was cheated by Joe Biden".
In an interview clip with CBS' Gayle King, set to air in full on Sunday, November 15, Obama got candid about how he had stayed up to congratulate Trump during his 2016 Presidential election win. "When Donald Trump won, I stayed up until 2.30 in the morning and I then called Donald Trump to congratulate him," Obama said, adding "His margin of victory over Hillary Clinton wasn't greater than Joe Biden's margin over him."
Obama then followed it up with criticism, slamming Trump for having thousands of Americans convinced that election fraud was rampant this year, despite there being an absolute lack of evidence to prove the same. Even election officials have said there's been no proof that would have impacted or changed the outcome, according to reports.
Obama claimed that these unfounded "allegations are presented as facts. "So you've got millions of people out there who think, 'Oh yeah, there must be cheating because the president said so'."
After the 2020 US Presidential Election on November 3, Trump claimed an early victory in the early hours itself. Millions of votes were still yet to be counted, and despite Trump leading in many of the battleground states, as more and more ballots were counted, Biden pulled ahead.
The former Vice President during Obama's double term is now the projected winner of the election, standing ahead with 306 electoral votes while Trump is all the way down at 232, report prime media outlets.
The interview with CBS also saw Obama assuring that no matter what Trump claims now about the election results, in January 2021, it will be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris swearing-in at the January 20 inauguration ceremony.
"Well, look, Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next vice president," Obama insisted, adding that speculations of an alternative have "no legal basis". Speaking about Trump's campaign claims of a fraudulent election, Obama noted how they were silent during their initial lead in the first two days. "They obviously didn't think there was any fraud going on," he remarked.
Obama's comments come in the wake of Trump and his aides continue to refuse to concede. While Trump has tweeted about this being a "rigged election", his aides including White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany are saying, "I think the president will attend his own inauguration," in an interview with Fox Business.
"He would have to be there, in fact. Again, you know that’s many steps away here in we’re talking January and President Trump believes he will be President Trump, have a second term. Litigation is the first step, many steps away from that."