Mayor of Philadelphia tells Trump to ‘put his big boy pants on’ and admit defeat

‘He needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner’

The mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has said that president Donald Trump needs to “put his big boy pants on” and accept defeat in the presidential election.  

“I think what the president needs to do is frankly put his big boy pants on,” mayor Jim Kenney said when asked to respond to the president's statement regarding the election on Thursday where he once again pushed unfounded claims of voter fraud.

“He needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner just as Jimmy Carter did just as George H W Bush did and frankly just as Al Gore did.”

The mayor concluded by saying Mr Trump needs to “stop this and let us move forward as a country."

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“That’s my feeling, I doubt he’ll listen to me but that's it,” he said.

The comments came as Philadelphia city officials discussed ongoing election operations and gave an update on the latest results inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The state's final election count for the state has not yet been announced due to delays in vote counting as a result of surge in mail-in ballots amidst the coronavirus pandemic.  

Mr Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, over Mr Trump by more than 6,700 votes on Friday morning after trailing the president since Election Day.

Addressing the White House on Thursday Mr Trump continued making unfounded claims of election fraud and illegal ballot-counting, breaking a 36-hour silence after prematurely declaring victory on Wednesday.

The president targeted Philadelphia in particular in a tweet on Friday morning, using a quote  which he attributed to Fox Business’s Stuart Varney to say it has a “rotten history on elections”  

“Philadelpiha has got a rotten history on election integrity,” Mr Trump tweeted, with a quote attribution to Mr Varney.

Mr Trump has provided no evidence to his claims.