President Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election, even though many key states have not counted all of their votes yet. He made this statement when he appeared in front of cameras in the East Room at the White House shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday Nov. 4. While the presidential race remains close, it is not over until all ballots have been counted.
Trump said, “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
An hour earlier, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said, at a small rally in his hometown of Wilmington Del., that he believed he was going to win the election and was optimistic about the election results. Biden said, “We’re feeling good about where we are.” He said that everyone needs to have patience and wait till the votes are all counted. Biden said, “We can know the results as early as tomorrow morning, but it may take a little longer.”
During Trump’s address in the East Room, where many of his family and supporters were present, Trump threatened to go directly to the Supreme Court and claim voter fraud.
Over an hour after the final U.S. polls closed in Alaska, Trump said, “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court, we want all voting to stop.”
Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement, “The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.”
For months Trump has tried to sow doubt about the validity of mail-in ballots. He told his supporters, “I think mail-in voting is horrible. It’s corrupt.” He claimed that Democrats would try to steal the election from him by mail-in ballots, which were projected to take longer to count than in-person voting ballots.
Some states where the President’s lawyers have gone to court to try to prevent the expansion of mail-in voting are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada among others.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he supported the courts deciding the election result. He said, “Going to court is the way we resolve uncertainty.” He said that it would not be uncommon to have both sides decide in court, he stated, “It’s the American way.”
Before Trump’s false announcement of winning, he posted on Twitter at 12:45 a.m. about his possible win. “I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!” A few minutes later he posted, “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!” These votes he spoke of were mail-in ballots that were not cast after the polls closed and have simply not been counted yet in some states.
Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro posted to Twitter, “No, Trump has not already won the election, and it is deeply irresponsible for him to say he has.” Shapiro tweeted this statement on Twitter at 2:31 a.m. on Nov. 4 after Trump claimed a false victory.
Certain states, like Pennsylvania, have still not fully counted ballots. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said that “there are still millions of ballots left to be counted,” on Wednesday.
At 11:55 a.m. Trump tweeted, “They are finding Biden votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!” This tweet was in response to news that Biden was winning Wisconsin and Michigan and news that Pennsylvania still had many ballots left to count. Many of Trump’s tweets since the early morning of Nov. 4. have been censored by Twitter as they contain false or misleading information about the election.
Trump tweeted at 1:52 p.m. on Nov. 4. that he was winning Pennsylvania. He said, “we are winning Pennsylvania big, but the Pa. Secretary of State just announced that there are ‘Millions of ballots left to be counted.’”
He then falsely claimed he had won Pennsylvania a few hours later on Twitter. “We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact,” he said.
He continued in another tweet censored by Twitter for being disputed and possibly being misleading about an election or other civic process, “there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!” This is something Trump has been claiming despite having no evidence to back up this claim.
Photo Courtesy of The Guardian
