President Donald Trump has called the US election a “fraud” and says he is the winner, despite running behind Biden on electoral college votes and many states still counting their ballots.
The first overnight indication Trump was not going to entertain the notion of losing came in a tweet at around 1 am Washington time. He said he would soon be making a statement, heralding “A BIG win!”
This was then followed by another tweet stating, “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”
That tweet came with a warning from Twitter that it was potentially misleading.
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We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
An hour or so later, he addressed supporters and the press in the White House.
“This is a fraud on the American public,” the president said. “This is an embarrassment to our country.”
Pointing to the large voter turnout and believing he has secured more votes than in the 2016 election, he said, “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
“We will be going to the US supreme court. We want all voting to stop.”
LIVE: President Donald J Trump https://t.co/J7hhaUPUf0
— Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) November 4, 2020
It’s believed that many Biden supporters voted early, and many postal ballots are still being counted. By contrast, many Trump supporters waited until election day to cast their vote, having been warned by the President – without evidence – that postal voting was open to abuse and potential fraud.
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After Trump finished his whinge speech, he invited Vice President Mike Pence to the lectern. Pence. The VP said, “as the votes continue to be counted, we’re going to remain vigilant … we’re going to protect the integrity of the vote.
“I truly believe … we are on the road to victory and we will make America great again, again.”
No, that’s not a typo. He said, “again, again!”
Pence pointedly did not echo the President’s comments about fraud or calling for the counting to be stopped.
even at 2 am, Mike Pence really knows how to kiss an ass.
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) November 4, 2020
At around the same time that Trump was claiming victory, Joe Biden tweeted, “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place.”
This was followed by, “We feel good about where we are. We believe we are on track to win this election.”
It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 4, 2020
At the time of writing, Trump has won Florida, Ohio and Texas, but the pivotal swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin remain too close to call. Biden has won California, Oregon, New Mexico and Minnesota, among others. According to Associated Press, Biden has 238 electoral college votes to Trump’s 213. The threshold for victory is 270. Some political commentators are suggesting that Republicans may have retained control of the Senate.
Many have criticized Trump’s call of victory, from across the political spectrum. The rightwing writer Ben Shapiro tweeted, “No, Trump has not already won the election, and it is deeply irresponsible for him to say he has.”
No, Trump has not already won the election, and it is deeply irresponsible for him to say he has.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 4, 2020
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Indications suggest the election prompted the highest voter turnout in at least 50 years, if not the last century.
michel_banen
Well, that’s exactly what dictators do; it’s all fraud if they don’t win and it’s all “amazingly accurate” if they do. Trump learned a lot from his friends in Russia and Korea….
jayceecook
Trump is going to win. The senate will remain Republican and you better pray the House doesn’t flip. I said in early 2015 Trump would win. People laughed. This time I stayed quiet.
People in this country need to realize that the USA has become more conservative. Identity politics don’t matter. Look at how many Latin and Black people voted for him. How many women voted for him. This includes congress too. I saw an interview with a woman who said she’s voting for Trump because she thinks Biden will die in office and she doesn’t want Kamala or Nancy that close to the presidential office. She said despite being a woman she isn’t comfortable having women in power. Queerty and folks here joke about the #GaysForTrump as if they don’t matter. Just because you don’t see them in large numbers at rallies doesn’t mean there isn’t a significant enough amount of them to take pause. Dems scoffed at the “shy” voters last time. They ignored them outright this time. It’s costing them.
Polls don’t matter. “Leads” don’t matter. How many elections will we have to suffer through before people realize this? Also, Dems tried two moderates in a row. Both failed or at least the second will soon. The DNP needs to WAKE UP! Try something new for once. If it fails then at the very least you can snub your nose at the progressive base and say, “Told you so.” But the sh*t you’ve been doing for 5-8 years isn’t working.
As an atheist I can’t pray I’m wrong and Biden will win. So y’all religious folks need to do it for me. Speaking of religious folks; they are going to drive this country back to the days of Abigail Williams. And all of us various “infidels” are going to be walking around this county Hester Prynne style. Sometimes freedoms come with a heavy price. I hope people are willing to pay.
Catholicslutbox
I’ve been saying that for a while. I knew Donald would win. Corruption and deceit are powerful tools.
I would not be surprised if people voted twice this time around. He endorsed it.
Stefano
Trump is going to win for sure. Your country will look like Russia or North Korea. Gays will pay. Welcome to hell.
Cam
And by “Baselessly Claims” you mean “Lied”.
Terrycloth
Right now Biden has 224
Trump has 213. .. not all votes are in .you need 270 to win.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
This is what I’ve concluded: its best not to announce the winner for another day or two because of anticipated violence. People, stop for a minute and think about the conditions that made it ripe for all out hell to break out last night and presently had a winner been announced. The weather across the country yesterday and today was/is mild for the most part which would have translated to the disgruntled on one side and the in-your-face on the other side squaring off in the streets, streets that would have been patrolled by the national guard. God help us if the national guard shot some one from either side regardless of what part of the country it happened in. Or let me be a bit more specific: imagine a black guard member shooting a white protester or visa verse. And the shooting being televised worldwide. Now do you get it?
Here in the midwest the weather forecast is fairly mild for the rest of the week. There is a shortage of guns and ammo across the nation and the number of FBI background checks ordered by gun stores over the past five months indicate that those guns and ammo were purchased legally by a scared population. I don’t worry about the groups the FBI had under surveillance before the election whom had intentions of kidnapping of public officials and declaration of war and a new order. I worry about the lone wolf armed with a rifle able to kill at a distance of over a mile and has no political beliefs but is hellbent on committing murder. Yeah, they exist and the little boy who decided to take his M-16 up to Kenosha to “help out” and ended up shooting three people give me reason to believe there are thousands out there who will make him look like one of Santa’s helpers in comparison.
Over one hundred million people voted before election day and that alone is enough to make me concluded the above reasons are why even though we live in a computerized world where the power of one iPhone could have been programmed to tally the votes of the entire country we will have to wait for seven or eight states to make their decision as to who won. Is that a democracy in action or is it an indoctrination for whats to come?
Kangol2
It’s going to be close, however it goes, despite the fact that for the 7th election in the last 8, the Democratic party has registered more voters than the GOP. I do agree with Jayceecook, though, about the polls and the Democratic Party yet again pursuing the moderate (Republite) route & leaving many potential voters feeling left out, especially younger people, who nevertheless appear to have voted overwhelmingly for Biden. It’s like 2004 with Kerry, when W Bush had screwed up badly for four years, yet Kerry’s response was to be a garden-variety liberal, and we see how that turned out (a razor-thin election W Bush won).
I disagree about identity politics, though, in the sense that White identity politics continue to trump everything else, and this has been true throughout US history but especially since 1968 and Nixon’s victory using the “Southern Strategy.” This country and our globe are facing so many challenges, beyond the pandemic, including rising inequality, climate change, increasing authoritarianism and religious fanaticism, etc., but neither candidate really offered any solutions, though Biden probably would take a more serious, effective approach to this pandemic and future ones.
But the vote counting isn’t over, so as Terrycloth says, let it continue.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
@Kangol2…………”But the vote counting isn’t over, so as Terrycloth says, let it continue.”
There is no way you are that detached from reality where you believe that. That counting was over within minutes of polls closing. We are dealing with the issue of national security (as in destabilization of whats left of our democracy and way of life) for the first time in our countries existence and it couldn’t be more obvious. It wasn’t this bad nor scary back in 2000 with Bush and Gore. We expected protest after the winner of 2000 was decided but this time around it just might end up sparking destabilization on an unimaginable scale. It does NOT take this long to count votes and you know it.
Kangol2
I’m not detached from reality; in every election in my lifetime, especially one like this one with tens of millions of mail-in and drop-off ballots, and states with widely differing rules for when they can count those ballots, those votes are not yet counted. Over the years we have seen elections sometimes flip by just a hundred–a hundred!–votes, like when Al Franken won his first time, or even a single vote as happened in Virginia a few years ago. Perhaps in all your years on this earth you have forgotten how long it sometimes takes to count votes in every state; it is rarely as clear cut and swift as when Obama won twice, or Reagan won twice, in both cases by comfortable margins. So I am being the realistic one, not you. That said, I do believe we are a point of tremendous societal tension and crisis, and how we proceed will be crucial.