Philadelphia mayor: Trump needs to 'put his big boy pants on' and admit he lost

During a press conference Friday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said that Donald Trump needs to accept that the presidential race is over and concede his loss to Democratic contender Joe Biden.

“I think what the president needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on,” Kenney said. “He needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner, just as Jimmy Carter did, just as George H.W. Bush did, and frankly, just as Al Gore did.”

But Kenney admitted that he doubted the White House occupant would listen to his opinion.

Trump has said he hasn’t prepared a concession speech because “losing is never easy,” and his campaign issued a statement Friday saying he will continue to keep fighting the election results.

“We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification,” the statement read in part. “This is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process.”

And, the statement adds, the fight is just beginning: “I will never give up fighting for you or our nation.”

But a concession speech by the loser of a presidential election, while a long-standing tradition, is not legally necessary for a peaceful transfer of power.

Election law expert Rick Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, told the American Independent Foundation that a concession “has no legal consequence.”

“It has more of a political consequence,” Hasen noted.

He added that there could be a “protracted struggle” if Trump persisted in flinging accusations of voter fraud and filing lawsuits to stop the counting of ballots.

Earlier on Friday, the Trump campaign’s general counsel, Matt Morgan, also said Trump had no intention of conceding, telling the Guardian: “This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final.”

But state government officials are not kowtowing to Trump’s petulant demands.

“Voters can have confidence that if they followed the law, their vote will be counted — and no matter who wins, that the final vote count will be legitimate,” Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, wrote in a CNN op-ed published Thursday. “This is a commitment made in every state, in every county, in every city and town across America: in states that lean Democrat and in states that lean Republican, on the West Coast and the East Coast, from Hawaii to the heartland. That’s our American tradition, and that is our law.”

He added that he would continue to ensure the law was followed in his home state.

“Over the next few days, we’ll see that our process is followed in Pennsylvania, we’ll see that our process is followed in Pennsylvania, we will see totals add up until 100% of the ballots are in, winners will be determined and the will of the voters will be heard,” Shapiro said.

A spokesperson for Ben Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, said that election directors and employees are “here to do the job of protecting democracy.”

“When you go to talk to them, they think about that. They think about the votes of every person in this room and around the country. These people are not involved in voter fraud,” said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting systems manager. “These people are not involved in voter suppression. I’m telling you, they are doing their jobs every day. It is hard, and we are thankful to them for it, and we are going to work with them to make sure that every legal, lawful ballot is counted.”

And Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford told the Nevada Independent on Thursday that Nevadans could rest easy that the election process was safe and secure.

“Rest assured, again, that we have people here who know how to run fair, safe and secure elections, and voter fraud is a very minimal occurrence,” Ford said.

The Biden team doesn’t seem to be losing sleep over whether Trump will offer up a concession speech.

“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election,” noted Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates on Friday. “And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

Even former Vice President Al Gore, who famously challenged the outcome of the 2000 election, had some thoughts on the matter.

Gore, who offered a gracious concession speech after a Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore handed his Republican opponent George W. Bush the presidency, told NBC that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and that Trump should do “the right thing” by conceding.

“The election is over with, the campaign is over with,” Gore said. “All that remains is to count the vote.”

He added: “The most important principle that I defended 20 years ago, that Joe Biden and many others are defending tonight is, let’s count every legally cast vote and obey the will of the American people. You know, I looked at the people standing in line to vote in the middle of a pandemic. … They’re heroes and they’re redeeming the promise of America.”

Gore noted: “I’ve heard the president say that if he doesn’t win, there may be this, that and the other. Nobody should be inciting violence. That’s dishonoring the mandate of the American people to make this choice.”

 Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.