Top confidant acknowledges Trump defeat: Country ‘should move on’ from election

A key member of President Trump’s inner circle, who first defended the president’s challenging of the 2020 presidential election results amid unfounded claims of fraud, indicated in an interview published by Axios on Monday that he thinks President-elect Joe Biden won and “the country should move on.” 

“I’m a fan of good process,” Blackstone CEO and top Trump confidant Steve Schwarzman told the outlet. “In my comments three days after the election, I was trying to be a voice of reason and express why it’s in the national interest to have all Americans believe the election is being resolved correctly. But the outcome is very certain today, and the country should move on.”

The Financial Times reported just days after the election that Schwarzman was one of several prominent business leaders who participated in a roundtable discussion that “defended Donald Trump’s response to this year’s U.S. poll results,” and gave credence to Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud, an account that meeting organizers later disputed.

The Blackstone CEO has been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters and closest confidants during his first term in office.

“I supported President Trump and the strong economic path he built,” Schwarzman said. “Like many in the business community, I am ready to help President-elect Biden and his team as they confront the significant challenges of rebuilding our post-COVID economy.”

Since Biden was projected by most major news outlets as the winner of the election on Nov. 7, Trump has declined to concede and his campaign has mounted legal challenges in several states Biden won. 

Over the weekend, a judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a lawsuit from Trump’s campaign alleging mail-in ballots had been treated differently by local election officials than those cast in person on election day. 

Late Sunday night, the campaign issued a statement distancing itself from attorney Sidney Powell, a conservative lawyer who participated in a press conference put on by the campaign last week in which she floated a conspiracy theory that communist money had influenced the outcome of the election. 

Several states are set to certify election results in the coming weeks. Trump’s lack of concession has sparked some fears the country might not experience a peaceful transition of power.