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'Rigged' allegations or not, here's what happens next in the presidential race

"These are the steps that I think are going to happen whether or not a concession is made," said SMU adjunct professor Eric Cedillo.

DALLAS — Despite a flurry of Sunday tweets where President Trump continued to insist that he was the victim of a "rigged" election, legal experts say the schedule is expected to continue as planned to install Joseph Biden as the 46th President of the United States.

"He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA.," the President tweeted early Sunday morning in his first acknowledgment of Biden's election win. "I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION," he said in a tweet that Twitter flagged with the message "this claim about election fraud is disputed."

Credit: Twitter

"Well, I think it's very unfortunate," Dallas lawyer and SMU adjunct professor Eric Cedillo said in response. "We're in a situation where I think everybody reasonably believes that, of course, Joe Biden won the election. The rhetoric coming from the President is, unfortunately, causing a lot of people a lot of concern about our election process our democratic process."

But Cedillo says he does not expect the rhetoric to slow the Constitutionally-mandated process scheduled to play out over the next two months. December 8th is the "safe harbor" deadline when each state, six days in advance of the Electoral College meeting, must certify its votes. Members of the Electoral College meet on December 14th. January 6th is the joint session of Congress where those final votes are presented and confirmed. And January 20, 2021, at noon, is when the next President is sworn into office, whether President Trump concedes or not.

"So these are the steps that I think are going to happen whether or not a concession is made," said Cedillo. "The president has absolutely no opportunity to overturn this election. It's not going to happen."

But thousands of supporters of the president, who marched through Washington, D.C. on Saturday, welcome Trump's continued resistance.

"Christmas is coming for Trump," said Trump supporter Marita Meza. "And it's going to be in a really good way. We're going to win!"

As of Sunday, upwards of 10 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign in key battleground states have either been denied or dropped.

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