Daily US Times: Pressure was mounting on President Donald Trump on Wednesday to concede and accept the election result that he lost to Democratic candidate Joe Biden by more than 5 million votes, even as the president, a Republican, continued to pursue claims on social media and in court about ballot tampering and fraud – without evidence.
Mr Trump’s refusal to concede is increasingly alarming those senior Republican leaders prepared to admit it, including former defence secretary and former US senator William Cohen, calling Trump’s behavior “more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy”.
As European leaders lined up to congratulate Joe Biden, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson even referred to Trump as the “previous president” while talking in parliament, although Mr Trump is president for 10 more weeks.
On Monday, Trump fired his defence secretary Mark Esper and followed up with a purge of several senior civilian officials at the Pentagon, raising further concerns over his intentions.
Meanwhile, the Democrats’ winning candidate joe Biden, pressed ahead with building his transition team and speaking out about urgent issues facing the US, including the coronavirus pandemic.
As more votes from the election were counted and his popular vote advantage over Donald Trump continued to grow, Biden laid a wreath at a Korean war memorial in Philadelphia to mark Veterans Day.
And in pelting rain, President Trump, who had not had any public engagements since Biden was projected winner of the election on Saturday morning, laid a wreath at Arlington national cemetery.
This in the wake of reports in September that the president had previously referred to military veterans as “suckers” and “losers”. Mr did not make any public remarks during the remembrance ceremony.
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