Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney on Friday (local time) stated that US President Donald Trump should ‘put his big boy pants on’, as signs indicate that the President might lose this election.
“I think what the President needs to do is frankly put his big boy pants on,” said Kenney in a press conference, reported CNN. Calling Trump’s allegations for the presidential polls as ‘baseless’, Kenney stated that a plain and simple democratic process was undertaken in the state while counting the ballots.
“While some, including the President, continue to spew baseless claims of fraud…what we have seen here in Philadelphia is democracy plain and simple,” CNN quoted Kenney. He also claimed that the city shines as an example of how to run an election correctly.
“He [Trump] needs to acknowledge that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner,” Kenny added.
According to CNN, former Vice President Joe Biden has taken lead over the President in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia, taking him closer to the 270 electoral college votes he needs to win the US presidential election. Biden currently leads Trump with 253 electoral college votes to 213 votes, as per the latest updates.
Let us assume Joe Biden narrowly wins the electoral college, and the Trump team lodges a series of court challenges to overturn results in Michigan and Pennsylvania, possibly elsewhere.
The cases may drag on for the rest of the year .Trump has already sent out a fundraising appeal for money to “fight back”, and has signalled he will pursue appeals all the way to the Supreme Court.
The cases will revolve around the acceptance of late ballots – that is, votes that arrive after November 3, even if they are postmarked earlier. Each state has its own requirements for accepting mail-in votes, and the Trump lawyers will explore every possible objection.
There is a conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, but this does not guarantee Trump would win appeals. When the court last decided an election, after the “hanging chads” dispute that delivered Florida to George W Bush in 2000, it divided on partisan lines.
But judges are conscious of their historical legacy and they will act cautiously. If Trump is appealing results in several states, it is unlikely all appeals will succeed.
Source: Hindustan Times
