President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump spent Thanksgiving Day at the White House instead of heading to his Mar-A-Lago club in Florida for the first time during his presidency. While the White House wished Americans a happy Thanksgiving, Trump’s tweets continued spreading baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Trump also held a contentious press conference after speaking with military leaders overseas.
“The First Family will be celebrating the day with immediate family for dinner at the White House,” a spokesman for the first lady told PEOPLE Thursday. “The President and First Lady wish everyone across the country a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.” Trump also pardoned his last turkeys while in office on Tuesday.
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The administration also released an annual proclamation for the holiday. In the end, Trump encouraged Americans to “gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings.” However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans against traveling far during the holiday to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Over on Twitter, Trump shared a baseless claim that there is “no way” President-elect Joe Biden received over 80 million votes and claimed the Nov. 3 election was “rigged.” Trump made similar claims during his press conference with reporters, although he did say he would “certainly” leave the White House if Biden is officially declared the winner in the Electoral College vote next month. “If they do, they made a mistake,” Trump added. He also said it is “going to be very hard to concede.”
Trump tweeted “Happy Thanksgiving” once on Thursday, as a way to celebrate the Supreme Court’s late Wednesday decision to block New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from putting limits on attendance at religious services during the pandemic. The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in dissent.
In response to the ruling, Cuomo said the Court was “making a statement that it’s a different court,” since it showed the impact of Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining. “The basic point is you know why does the court rule on an issue that is moot unless — and which they had just decided several months before in other cases which presented the same argument — why rule on a case that is moot and come up with a different decision than you did several months ago on the same issue?” Cuomo said, reports CNN. “You have a different court and I think that was the statement that the court was making.”
