President Trump said he might “stop by” a demonstration on Saturday in Washington, D.C., of supporters who back his refusal to concede the election, even as his loss in the Electoral College grew on Friday and his legal maneuverings in several states to overturn the results failed to advance.

The president’s possible visit comes after results in the last two states were announced on Friday, with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. winning Georgia to finish with a total of 306 electoral votes — the same number that Mr. Trump won in 2016 and called a landslide — and Mr. Trump winning North Carolina, for a total of 232 electoral votes.

Demonstrations of the Trump faithful planned for Saturday in Washington include a “Million MAGA March,” a “Stop the Steal” rally and a “Women for Trump” event; it was not clear which one Mr. Trump might attend. “Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there,” the president posted on Twitter on Friday afternoon.

Later Friday — in his first public remarks since the election was called — a White House briefing on his administration’s efforts to distribute a coronavirus vaccine, the president came close to acknowledging Mr. Biden’s win before catching himself.

“This administration will not be going to a lockdown,” Mr. Trump said in the Rose Garden, adding that “hopefully the — whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be. I guess time will tell.”

Since the election was called for Mr. Biden one week ago, many of Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the results in a handful of states, built around baseless claims of widespread vote fraud, have already been dismissed or dropped.

In the latest rounds on Friday, a state court judge in Michigan denied the Trump campaign’s request to halt the certification of the vote in Wayne County, home to Detroit; a Philadelphia judge denied the campaign’s petition to dismiss thousands of absentee and mail-in ballots; and in Arizona, the campaign effectively abandoned its so-called “Sharpiegate” lawsuit, which had claimed that ballots cast for Mr. Trump were invalidated after voters used felt-tip markers.

In Georgia, which Mr. Biden won by about 14,000 votes, auditors are reviewing all 5 million ballots by hand, but state election officials said the recount was very unlikely to change the outcome.

As the week drew to a close, Mr. Trump’s attempts to deny electoral reality appeared to be collapsing around him and his reluctance to begin making way for Mr. Biden stirred bipartisan ire.

More than 160 former public officials warned Friday that the administration’s refusal to give the president-elect access to intelligence briefings and other transition services “poses a serious risk to our national security.” A growing chorus of Republican senators this week pressed for Mr. Biden to begin receiving the briefings. And on Thursday, a group of federal, state and local election officials declared flatly that the election “was the most secure in American history” and that there was “no evidence” any voting systems were compromised.

On Friday, Mr. Biden urged the distracted president to turn his attention to the rapidly worsening pandemic and take stronger action.

“This crisis demands a robust and immediate federal response, which has been woefully lacking,” Mr. Biden said Friday. “I am the president-elect, but I will not be president until next year. The crisis does not respect dates on the calendar, it is accelerating right now.”

courtesy- New York Times