Poll: Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say Biden won, despite Trump refusing to concede

The overwhelming majority of Americans say President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election amid unsubstantiated cries of fraud from President Trump, according to a Reuers/Ipsos poll released Tuesday.

The survey, conducted from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday, showed 79 percent of U.S. adults believe Biden is the winner of the presidential election. Approximately 60 percent of Republicans said Biden won.

Most news outlets called the race for Biden on Saturday afternoon after he was projected to win Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes.

Trump has thus far refused to concede defeat, waging lawsuits in multiple battleground states. Most legal experts say these lawsuits will accomplish little to nothing, in part due to the lack of evidence presented so far.

On Tuesday, Biden called Trump’s refusal to concede an “embarrassment.”

“The only thing that — how can I say this tactfully — I think it will not help the president’s legacy,” the former vice president said during a press conference on health care.

Without fully agreeing with Trump’s claims, many GOP leaders have yet to congratulate or recognize Biden’s win and have joined in the call for all “legal votes” to be counted and for “illegal votes” to be dismissed. 

Some high-ranking Republican officials have congratulated Biden, including Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

On Tuesday, when asked if he was communicating with Biden’s transition team, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

The State Department did not respond to requests for clarification.

The survey was part of a larger one having to do with the election process. Seventy percent of Americans said they trust their election officials to “do their job honestly,” 72 percent said they believe the loser of the election should concede defeat and 60 percent believe a peaceful transition of power is coming in January.

The poll had a sample size of 1,363 and had a credibility interval of about 5 points.