Presidential Concession Speech is not in the constitution

For all of my adult life as a voter, the loser in a presidential election always calls the winner to congratulate him. I do recall in 2000, Al Gore conceded to George Bush then retracted his statement due to a recount. Eventually, he did acknowledge that he lost the election. The big question on the minds of a lot of Americans right now is whether or not Donald Trump will concede and congratulate Joe Biden. The truth is that it really does not matter. A concession speech is a courtesy and not written into the US constitution. No one has to make that phone call but it is done to show good sportsmanship.

Julian Zelizer, a political analyst for CNN wrote an op/ed says there is widespread agreement within the White House that the sitting president will not deliver a concession speech, to Joe Biden but it's not written in stone that he has to. Many Americans simply want to see that after four tumultuous years, The Donald can show himself to be gracious, but they might be very disappointed. Zelizer says that members of the Trump administration are divided between supporting the President's attempt to fight the election results in court and looking for new employment options.

The one thing they seem to agree on is that Donald Trump will not deliver a concession speech. This should not be surprising as he is not a politician, does not play by the rules, and does not like losing. He began saying months ago that if he lost the election would be stolen so Americans should be expecting him not to play nice. Regarding concession speeches, historians believe the first public concession was in 1896 when Democrat William Jennings Bryan sent a telegraph to Republican William McKinley which said: "I hasten to extend my congratulations. We have submitted the issue to the American people and their will is law."

Concessions are basically when the loser congratulates the winner, calls for unity, and impress upon supporters that they should accept the results. Donald J Trump is not going to do that and no one should expect him to. The late Senator John McCain lost to Senator Barack Obama in 2008 he graciously conceded and said that Obama had his respect. He acknowledged the historic nature of Obama's victory, called for unity, and said, "I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president."

On January 20, 2021, when the clock strikes noon, Joe Biden will officially begin his presidency. Donald Trump will at that moment return to civilian life whether he likes it or not. Americans understand that number 45 is hurting right now. He lost the popular vote in 2016 and also 2020. He lost his chance to become a second-term president. Joe Biden received the electoral votes. Trump has said that he likes winners and not losers but today he is a loser yet he continues to lie that he won the election. He has at least 5 lawsuits going in an attempt to prove fraud but even some in his own cabinet say they have no merit.

Donald Trump is living in his own world and the sad part is 71 million Americans have enabled him. Number 45 is correct that he received the most votes of any sitting president, but he did not receive enough to win the election. The very system he praised in 2016 for electing him, is the same one that declared Joe Biden to be number 46. Trump considered it as fair four years ago, but flawed now because he lost. As of this writing, he has not tweeted in seven hours and it's probably because he knows it's over and has nothing to say.

Many Americans joked that Donald Trump would run the White House the same way he operated on The Aprentice and he did. Every time we turned around he was saying to someone whom he hired, "You're fired". Now the tables have turned and if he does not acknowledge it before then, someone will let him know on January 20 that the chickens have come home to roost. Concession speech or not, fake tweets and lawsuits, in a little over two months Donald Trump will have no choice but to admit that he himself has been fired by the American people, 74 million of them.