John Rich Believes Joe Biden Won't Be Sworn in as President, Makes $10K Charitable Bet

Amid President Donald Trump and his campaign's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 [...]

By Allison Schonter

Amid President Donald Trump and his campaign's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, country singer John Rich is putting money on President-elect Joe Biden not being sworn in as president. On Tuesday, the country crooner made a lighthearted $10,000 charitable bet on that belief with journalist Adam Gold.

Responding to a tweet from Gold regarding the Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling rejecting the GOP's bid to reverse Pennsylvania's election results, Rich said that he still felt "very confident" that come Jan. 20, Trump will remain in the Oval Office. Rich is feeling so confident, in fact, that he is willing to put money on it, asking Gold to "make our bet official." Under the terms of the bet he offered up, both Rich and Gold would put $10,000 into an escrow account. If Biden is sworn in, as Gold believes he will be, Gold will be able to donate Rich's betting money to Folds of Honor, which provides "educational scholarships to the spouses and children of America's fallen or disabled service members." If Trump were to remain in office, however, Rich would donate Gold's betting money to a charity of the writer's choice.

Given the good-natured betting and the fact that the large sums of money would be going to a good cause, Gold was quick to accept. He replied to Rich's offer, writing, "Deal. It's on." Rich reacted with enthusiasm, commenting, "Great! You pick the bank and let me know."

Unfortunately for Rich, Trump's path to victory is quickly narrowing. The Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling marked just the latest example of the Trump campaign's legal efforts being tossed out. The Trump campaign has attempted to make a case for results being overturned due to widespread voter fraud, of which they have so far failed to produce evidence. In the Pennsylvania case, Republicans in the state had made a bid to nullify Biden's victory by striking down an expanded mail-in ballot policy that Pennsylvania had put in place in 2019. The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the bid in an order that included no noted dissents. That ruling came just ahead of the "safe harbor" deadline, after which point the certification of election results from states prior to that date are deemed "conclusive.

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