Donald Trump finally hints at election loss, talks about Covid lockdown, vaccine

In the first public remarks since Joe Biden was widely projected the winner last Saturday, Donald Trump insisted on Friday that he would never put the US into a Covid-19 lockdown, but said "time will tell" if another administration takes office in January and does so.

This is the closest he has come to acknowledging that President-elect Joe Biden could succeed him.

Amid a crush of new infections that has pushed daily case counts to record highs, Trump said he expects a coronavirus vaccine to be available for the entire population as soon as April.

"Ideally, we won't go to a lockdown. I will not go, this administration will not be going to a lockdown... Hopefully the, the — uh — whatever happens in the future — who knows which administration will be. I guess time will tell," Trump said on Friday. 

Accusations of widespread voting fraud

Trump appeared to acknowledge for the first time the possibility of an upcoming Biden administration in broadcast remarks in the White House Rose Garden, though he stopped short of conceding the race and did not mention his Democratic rival by name.

Since the November 3 election, Trump has persisted with unfounded accusations of widespread voting fraud. But while he has continued to make such claims on Twitter, he did not repeat them in his public remarks on Friday.

The last time Trump spoke — in the White House briefing room two days after the election — he said without evidence that if "legal" votes were counted he would "easily win" the election. Biden solidified his victory over Trump on Friday after the state of Georgia went his way, leaving Trump little hope of reversing the outcome through legal challenges and recounts.

The Republican president said on Friday that he expects an emergency use authorisation for Pfizer's PFE.N vaccine "extremely soon". Pfizer has said it expects to report required safety data next week and can then apply for an emergency use authorisation.

The remarks came after Trump received an update on 'Operation Warp Speed', an administration effort to turbocharge development of a vaccine. Criticism of the administration's response to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,35,000 Americans, became a rallying cry for Democrats ahead of the elections.

 

Source: India Today