I've spent a good part of the campaign covering the Trump admin's attacks on the integrity of the electoral process, so I'm going to be fact-checking Donald Trump's statement, which is due to start shortly.
Trump says "pollsters knowingly got it wrong." This is obviously not true.
"If you can't the legal votes, I easily win." — This is false. There is no evidence that any illegal votes have been counted.
"Media polling was election interference by powerful special interests. These polls were designed to keep our voters at home."
"They were suppression polls."
Trump is suggesting a vast conspiracy of the entire media industry (inc. Fox News) to create fake poll results. False.
"We were winning a lot and then our numbers started getting whittled away in secret." This is false. Trump's numbers went down because mail-in ballots take longer to count and they were used overwhelmingly by Democrats.
"They want to find out how many votes they need, they wait and wait and then they find them." Trump again pretending not to know how mail-in ballots are counted. They take longer to count, used overwhelmingly by Democrats. Thus the late shift.
The premise of this entire speech is Trump alleging a vast conspiracy across several states because he took an early lead which decreased. The actual reason is that mail-in ballots take longer to count and were used overwhelmingly by Dems. Everyone knew this was going to happen.
This is getting a bit rambling. If the Trump campaign had any evidence of voter fraud they would have presented it. All we have is a deliberately obtuse explanation of how election counts work.
The president is slurring some of his words.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Vibe check outside the Pennsylvania Convention Centre, where votes are being counted. Hundred or so Count Every Vote people and a handful of Trump supporters in a pen.
A Trump supporter has turned up with a “ban homo marriage” sign and a megaphone.
A few more have turned up and they seem in better spirits.
Small crowd of Trump supporters outside the Pennsylvania convention Centre, where PA’s remaining votes are being counted. Rudy Giuliani and team on the way here.
Giuliani and the gang have now cancelled their press conference outside the convention centre. Crowd mostly disbanded. Benny Hill theme plays.
The gang have now rearranged their press conference at the airport after unilaterally declaring victory before the ballots have been counted. Heading there now.
Pennsylvania @GovernorTomWolf talking now: "The promise of democracy is that every vote counts. That has been the promise of democracy since 1787. They will be counted accurately and fully.”
"Delay is a sign that the system is working. There are 3 million mail-in ballots that are being counted. We may not know the results even today. The most important thing is that we have accurate results."
"Make no mistake: our democracy is being tested in this election. This is a stress test of the ideals on which this country was founded. The basic rule of one person, one vote, still carries."
Back in September, I laid out in this piece how Donald Trump's attacks on mail-in ballots were a precursor to him trying to stop them from being counted. This is what we're seeing today. independent.co.uk/news/world/ame…
This whole mess could have been avoided if Republicans in Pennsylvania allowed mail-in ballots to be processed before election day. They refused because mail-in ballots were disproportionately used by Democrats, and the uncertainty benefited them.
We did a podcast on this slow-motion car crash last week btw.