In an interview with The 19th published on Friday, President Donald Trump’s former counselor Kellyanne Conway acknowledged Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump has not yet conceded the race and maintains that it was rigged, while launching legal challenges in key states in order to overturn the results. Republicans and government officials have mostly supported his initiatives, with only some of them acknowledging reality.
Speaking with The 19th ‘s Washington correspondent Amanda Becker, Conway stressed that Trump has every right to challenge the results, but admitted that it is all but certain that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will assume office on January 20.
“The president wants to exhaust all of his legal avenues, as he has made clear many times. His team is doing that, and that is his right,” Conway said.
“If you look at the vote totals in the Electoral College tally, it looks like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will prevail. I assume the electors will certify that and it will be official. We, as a nation, will move forward, because we always do.”
Biden was declared winner of the election by virtually all major news outlets on November 7. The Democrat received over 81 million votes, more than any presidential candidate in history. He received 306 Electoral College votes and won the popular popular vote by around 7 million.
Conway suggested that she is open to working with the Biden-Harris administration, saying that the two Democrats “can count on me” in the future and stressed that a peaceful transition of power is necessary.
“You always need a peaceful transfer of democracy, no matter whose administration goes into whose administration,” Trump’s former counselor said.
Still, Conway — who managed Trump’s 2016 campaign before becoming one of his closest advisers — praised the commander-in-chief for trusting her with such an important role in the White House. The president, she stressed, “elevated me and, more importantly, empowered me.”
Conway, who left the White House in August in order to focus on her family, noted that she is still close to Trump and that they spoke as recently as this week.
Even though Biden will almost certainly be inaugurated on January 20, the Trump campaign has been soliciting donations from supporters.
The commander-in-chief and his allies have reportedly raised more than $200 million since Election Day. However, according to watchdog groups such as Common Cause, Trump is redirecting most of the money to himself, instead of spending it on lawsuits and financing his legal team.