'Legal disgrace', says Trump as US Supreme Court gives final blow to his election fraud claims
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The decision by US Supreme Court has cleared way for US electoral college to cast its votes and formally certify Joe Biden's victory
US President Donald Trump lashed out at US Supreme Court after it dealt what is perceived as a final and fatal blow to his claims of fraud in US Presidential Election 2020. US Supreme Court rejected lawsuit by Texas and other states that demanded throwing out of election results in four states. Trump called the decision a 'legal disgrace'.
"The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!" wrote Trump, adding in a later Tweet, "It is a legal disgrace, an embarrassment to the USA!!!"
“We’ve not gotten any court to judge this (the vote) on its merit.” @DanPatrick of Texas. It is a legal disgrace, an embarrassment to the USA!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2020
The decision by US Supreme Court has cleared way for US electoral college to cast its votes and formally certify Joe Biden's victory. The Electoral College will meet on Monday (December 14)
Biden, a Democrat, has amassed 306 votes to Trump's 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College, which allots votes to all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on population.
The four states in question - Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - contributed a combined 62 votes to Biden's total. To win the White House, 270 votes are needed.
Trump is yet to concede the election. Ever since it was certain that Joe Biden had defeated him in presidential elections, Trump has made baseless claims of election fraud without providing any evidence. Even when he suffered number of legal defeats prior to Supreme Court verdict, he was not willing to concede.
Trump's goal had long been for a case to reach the Supreme Court, where he had placed three new justices in his first term and where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority. The lawsuit brought by Texas and supported by 17 other states and more than 100 Republican members of Congress gave him that opportunity.
In the run-up the Nov. 3 election, Trump had pushed for the swift confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, with the publicly stated hope that she could be in a position to help rule on an election challenge.
But Barrett and the two other justices appointed by Trump - Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh - signed onto the court's order derailing the Texas suit without comment.
(With Reuters inputs)