Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kennedy said Friday that President Donald Trump needs to “put his big boy pants on” and accept defeat as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden takes the lead in battleground states across the country.
“I think, what the president needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on,” Kennedy said. “He needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner.”
“I think what the President needs to do is to frankly put his big boy pants on. He needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner” pic.twitter.com/nMqHnaYcKW
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 6, 2020
Kennedy’s suggestion comes despite Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley said Friday that they have “upwards” of 40,000 ballots left to be counted, adding it will take “several days” to complete, according to Fox News. Deeley noted those figures do not include U.S. military ballots and overseas ballots, which have until Nov. 10 to be received by city officials to be counted.
“We are counting ballots, and we will continue to do that as quickly as possible without sacrificing accuracy,” she said, per the report. “We are going to continue to count the ballots until they are done.” (RELATED: FLASHBACK: Two Democrats Charged With Inflating Democratic Votes In Philadelphia Months Ago)
Kennedy himself noted that the voting count will continue.
“This is not about a victory for a single candidate or a single political party, but a victory for our democracy,” Kennedy said, per Fox. “The votes will continue to be counted.”
Biden overtook the lead in the battleground state overnight, leading Trump by roughly 12,000 votes, according to Fox 8. The Associated Press has still not called the race, noting it’s too early. If there is less than a half percentage point difference in vote totals, state law orders an automatic recount, per the same report.
This all comes as Trump’s campaign files lawsuits in several battleground states, including one in Pennsylvania to allow the Trump campaign to observe ballot counting. Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon ordered that Trump campaign officials can observe ballot counters as long as they comply with social distancing. The order was to go into effect immediately but the city of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Democratic Party appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
“They’re appealing – I wonder why they’re appealing,” Trump said. “All we want is to have people watch while they do the tabulation.”