Barack Obama speaks out on Trump's refusal to concede, claims of voter fraud

Barack Obama has spoken out on Trump's refusal concede and claims of voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 election.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, the former president was asked what he thought of the "false claims of widespread election fraud" that Trump has made since Joe Biden took over in the presidential race to become the president-elect.

"They appear to be motivated, in part, because the president doesn't like to lose and never admits loss," Obama responded, adding, "I'm more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion."

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The president's legal team has reportedly come up with insufficient evidence of voter fraud thus far, with Yahoo News pointing out that none of this evidence has the potential to win him any of the key battleground states.

The Department of Homeland Security joined election officials on Thursday alongside international election monitors to dispute the claims being made by Trump.

For the interview, which is set to air on Sunday, 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley interviewed the former president about his memoir A Promised Land.

"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history," the two committees at DHS in charge of overseeing elections said in a statement, before adding: "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

Several high-ranking members of the Republican party have stayed silent about the issue and failed to support Trump's right to pursue the allegations in court.

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"President Trump won this election," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, per the Washington Post.

According to vote counts by the Associated Press and other media organizations, Biden has surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to become president-elect.

Now, a theory is taking root among Trump supporters that the election was deliberately rigged against him, with a Politico/Morning Consult poll this week finding that 70% of Trump supporters believe that the 2020 election was not "free and fair."

Obama said that Trump's motivation for throwing doubt over the legitimacy of the electoral process was clear.

"It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration, but democracy generally. And that's a dangerous path," Obama said.