‘I’ll see you in four years’

Still irate and bitter one month after his election defeat to Joe Biden, Donald Trump is openly musing about a second run at the US presidency in 2024. 

Refusing to accept defeat, Trump's lawyers and supporters continued Wednesday to file lawsuits and even call for extraordinary intervention, such as martial law, to force a new vote.

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And Trump released an extraordinary 46 minute video in which he again claimed that he was robbed of victory in a "rigged" election.

But at a White House Christmas party on Tuesday, the president suggested he might have lost this battle, but would not retire quietly as a one-term president.

"It's been an amazing four years. We are trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I'll see you in four years," he told guests.

The comment was perhaps the closest the 74 year old Trump has come to admitting his quixotic, month-long quest to reverse Biden's win has failed.

All six contested states have now certified their tallies, and the national count gives Biden nearly seven million more votes than Trump, an insurmountable four percentage-point margin.

On Tuesday Attorney General Bill Barr declared that the Justice Department had found no significant evidence of fraud in the election.

According to media reports Trump is preparing his exit, holding discussions about issuing preemptive pardons for his three adult children -- Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka -- for Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, and his own personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. 

On Wednesday he released on Twitter a formal address on the election.

"This may be the most important speech I've ever made," he began. He recited a litany of complaints about the election, saying the Democrats used the Covid-19 crisis to force widespread use of mailed ballots, which he said were fraudulently manipulated to support Biden.

"This election was rigged, everybody knows it," he said.

Supporters continued to fight against the results. Giuliani appeared before Michigan's state legislature Wednesday to present his claims of irregularities.

In Georgia, another lawyer tied to the Trump campaign, Sidney Powell, spoke to a rally of supporters claiming their votes were not counted.

And two prominent retired three-star generals, including Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn, chillingly called for Trump to declare martial law and have the military supervise a new election.

According to NBC News, Trump has discussed the possibility with his close aides of launching his 2024 campaign on January 20, the day Biden is to be inaugurated as president. 

But he has not decided when to concede  defeat to Biden.