Trump news – live: President finally admits Joe Biden has won but repeats claims US election was rigged
Donald Trump acknowledged that Joe Biden won the US presidential election for the time on Sunday, but claimed attempts to “steal votes” meant the contest was rigged.
The president stopped short of conceding defeat and his legal team are still focused on challenging the electoral process in the courts despite no evidence having been provided that there was widespread fraud.
His comments come after several thousand Trump supporters gathered in Washington DC to protest against the election results on Saturday, with clashes erupting and at least 20 arrests made.
In a late night string of tweets, the president claimed “radical Left ANTIFA SCUM” had been to blame for the violence and urged the police to “do your job and don’t hold back!!!”
On Saturday, Mr Trump – who still refuses to concede defeat despite Joe Biden having secured a decisive electoral college victory – spent another day playing golf.
The president insisted there was “tremendous evidence of wide spread voter fraud” but failed to offer proof that there had been tampering on a scale large enough to tip the election in his favour.
Cries of "stop the steal" and "count every vote" from the crowd continued despite a broad coalition of top government and industry officials having declared that the 3 November voting and the following count unfolded smoothly with no more than the usual minor hiccups.
