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Conservatives Get Brutally Fact-Checked After Claiming Biden Invented the 'Office of the President Elect'

Conservatives Get Brutally Fact-Checked After Claiming Biden Invented the 'Office of the President Elect'
Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Outgoing President Donald Trump continues to lie that widespread voter fraud tipped the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden.

In addition to the constant stream of falsehoods and delusional hypotheticals emanating from the President's Twitter account, the Trump campaign's legal team has filed dozens of dubious lawsuits in an attempt to overturn the results of the election. They've lost over 30 of these cases.

Nevertheless, a pocket of the President's most devout supporters believe he has more than a good chance at successfully subverting the will of the American people and securing a second term. This has led them to assert that President-elect Biden has prematurely begun acting as the victor.

For his part, Biden has focused on previewing plans and positions, making announcements for pandemic and economic policies with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for when the pair takes office on January 20, 2021.

In one post-election appearance regarding Trump's efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, signs behind Biden read "Office of the President-Elect."

This prompted some conservatives, especially those under the bogus impression that Biden lost the election, to take umbrage.

Trump supporter and media personality Benny Johnson accused the President-elect of creating a "fake office":

"They even created a fake office for Joe Biden, the Office of the President-Elect. Sounds nice, but it's fake. It's not real. For the record there is no such thing as the Office of the President-Elect."

In reality, the title "President-elect" has been in use for decades. The term "Office of the President Elect" has also been used by both parties.

Trump himself displayed the term on a podium days ahead of his inauguration in 2016.

As FactCheck.org notes:

"Biden did not 'invent' the term. In fact, the term — and similar signage — was previously used by Trump.

At a New York City press conference on Jan. 11, 2017, nine days before his inauguration, Trump addressed reporters from a podium labeled 'The Office of the President Elect.'"

Twitter users scoffed at the erroneous accusation.






And the title of "President-elect" is being used by a small number of Republican officials to describe Biden.



The Trump campaign has lost nearly every attempt at litigating the results of the 2020 election.