P
resident Donald Trump appears to have conceded ground in his legal battle against the election result saying “who knows” which administration will be in charge as Joe Biden flips Republican stronghold Georgia in final results.
Mr Trump addressed the nation in the Rose Garden to provide an update on Operation Warp Speed – the US’s coronavirus response where he inisited he would never impose a lockdown on the American people despite at least 243,300 Covid-19 deaths.
A reserved Mr Trump said a national lockdown costs an estimated $50billion a day.
Mr Trump said: “Ideally we won’t go into a lockdown, I will not go… This administration will not be going into a lockdown.
“Hopefully whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be? I guess only time will tell.
“But I can tell you this administration will not be going into a lockdown. Lockdowns cost lives and a lot of problems, the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”
The President referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus” throughout.
He said the Pfizer vaccine would be provided to the American people “free of charge” five times faster than any other vaccine ever developed.
Mr Trump said the vaccine would be distributed to frontline workers, the elderly and high-risk Americans within weeks.
He said senior citizens would be able to reclaim their “golden years”.
The press conference came as Joe Biden has flipped Georgia and President Donald Trump has won the state of North Carolina as the last two states are called a week and a half after the US election.
In Georgia Joe Biden edged the win with 2,472,154 votes (49.5%) per cent share compared to President Trump’s 2,458,002 (49.2%), according to CNN.
No Democrat has won Georgia since 1992 but after a ten-year project from the Democrats and an explosive growth in votes in Atlanta has claimed 16 electoral votes.
Mr Trump is projected to add North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes to his total. Overall, Biden is projected to win 306 electoral votes, Trump is projected to win 232.
Mr. Biden now has 306 electoral votes and Mr. Trump has 232. Mr. Biden became president-elect when he won Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes on Saturday, passing the required 270-vote threshold.
The victory for Mr Biden in Georgia — a once reliably Republican state whose politics have shifted to the left — means that he flipped five states that Mr Trump won in 2016.
The current President campaigned aggressively in North Carolina with in-person rallies at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, including gatherings in Fayetteville, Winston-Salem and Greenville in the weeks before the election.