The White House says the election results 'accurately reflect the will of the American people'

President Barack Obama
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

More than a month after formally accusing Russia of attempting to influence the United States' presidential selection process, the White House on Friday discouraged challenges to the legitimacy of the election.

"The Kremlin probably expected that publicity surrounding the disclosures that followed the Russian government-directed compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations, would raise questions about the integrity of the election process that could have undermined the legitimacy of the president-elect," said a statement from the administration. "Nevertheless, we stand behind our election results, which accurately reflect the will of the American people."

Meanwhile, an excerpt from a forthcoming book on Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump revealed Friday that Clinton conceded the election at President Obama's urging. While Clinton's campaign wanted to delay concession as long as possible — and some in her inner circle now believe that impulse was correct given their candidate's growing lead in the popular vote — Obama reportedly called to say she needed to go ahead and concede.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.