Let’s Be Very Clear About This: Donald Trump Has Not Won The Election
Trump has claimed victory, but it really doesn't look like that's the case yet.
Donald Trump has falsely claimed victory in the United States election, despite an expected delay of days until results are known.
To be clear, Trump is lying about the current state of play in an effort to undermine the final result.
We are still waiting for final results in several crucial swing states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada. Trump is currently ahead in some of those states, but millions of mail-in and pre-poll votes remain to be counted. Those votes are expected to heavily favour Biden.
Addressing the nation not long after 2AM local time, Trump said said that in his eyes, he had won the election.
“This [election] 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,” he said. “We did win this election… So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation, this is a very big moment, this is a major fraud on our nation.
“We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list, OK?
“To me this is a very sad moment. And we will win in. As far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.”
He telegraphed the comments earlier in the night by tweeting that it was a “big WIN” for the Trump campaign. Another tweet claimed the votes couldn’t be cast after polls close, which was flagged by Twitter as misleading.
I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
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
Joe Biden for his part chose to say that they wouldn’t know the results tonight, but was similarly confident of a win.
“We feel good about where we are. We really do. We believe we’re on track to win this election we knew because of the unprecedented early vote it would take a while. It ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. We’re feeling good,” he told his supporters in Delaware.
The 2020 campaign has been marred with political violence, assaults on the ability to vote, undermining the integrity of the postal system and postal votes and Trump’s refusal to agree to concede if he loses.
Because of all this, the effective results of the election may not be known for some time and will likely be challenged to the Supreme Court.
Trump managed to do well in the election despite his poor record on handling the coronavirus crisis and quelling the civil unrest.
Many of the southern states and the rust belt remained loyal to him despite being some of the hardest hit by the virus. Even Florida, a state with a huge elderly population, went to Trump.
Joe Biden managed an early lead in some counts, so he’s probably still in with a fighting chance.
His campaign centred around reuniting the country in the wake of Trump’s presidency, but his efforts had been criticised for not doing enough to address the issues which brought the US to the breaking point it had been at for the past four years.