President Donald Trump has said there will be an “orderly” transfer of power on Jan. 20, while also promising a continuation of the “fight” for his political platform.
The President’s statement was made Thursday morning on Twitter via his social media chief, Dan Scavino, after Trump’s own account was suspended by Twitter over tweets that breached its civic integrity policy.
The statement came just minutes after Congress announced it had certified the victory of President-elect Joe Biden last November.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” Trump’s statement read.
“I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
The belated statement followed an attempted insurrection by Trump supporters in the U.S. Capitol that the President himself stoked. The violent culmination of a march against November’s election results left four people dead and shocked the world, with political and business leaders uniting in condemnation.
The storming of the Capitol forced the temporary suspension of Congress’s official tallying of Electoral College votes, with lawmakers sent scurrying for cover. However, once the rioters were belatedly cleared, the process resumed, resulting in Biden’s confirmation as President-elect.
Trump had earlier in the day incited his supporters, telling them: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong.” He also had urged Vice President Mike Pence to overturn states’ votes on Wednesday.
However, Pence told members of Congress: “My oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
The headline of this article was amended to more accurately reflect Trump’s quote.