Trump acknowledges Biden 'won' before declaring: 'I concede NOTHING'
"He won because the Election was Rigged," Trump tweeted, along with unsubstantiated theories about access for poll observers and vote tabulations.
However, a later tweet indicated it was not meant as a concession.
"He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!" Trump wrote.
As with many of Trump's recent tweets, Twitter slapped a warning sign on both posts, saying they contained disputed claims of election fraud.
Biden declared victory over a week ago after all major US media outlets called the election for him, but Trump had so far refused to acknowledge his rival's win.
Trump's lawyers are fighting results in courts in multiple states, without any success. Federal and state officials have said the November 3 presidential election was secure and there was no evidence of major irregularities.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer who is in charge of his efforts to challenge the outcome of the election, denied Trump was conceding.
"Far from it," he told Fox News after being asked about Trump's earlier tweet. "I guess you'd call it sarcastic."
Former national security adviser John Bolton, a Republican who has turned against Trump, urged his party to recognize that its chief had been defeated.
"I think it's very important for leaders of the Republican Party to explain to our voters ... that in fact Trump has lost the election and his claims of election fraud are baseless," Bolton told ABC News.
Biden has begun the transition, even as the White House refuses to cooperate.
"If the president's prepared to begin to recognize that reality, that's positive," Ron Klain, Biden's pick for chief of staff, told NBC News with regards to Trump's tweet.
"Donald Trump's Twitter feed doesn't make Joe Biden president or not president, the American people did that," he added.
Klain, the former Ebola czar in the Obama administration, also called on the Trump administration to this week start working with Biden's transition team so that the president-elect can receive intelligence briefings and work on a response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have a big stack of business for day one," Klain said, vowing to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, protect people who immigrated to the US as minors known as Dreamers, and take action on health care when Biden takes office on January 20.
