In his first update since the night of the election, Donald Trump today made a series of unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, emphasising to his supporters that he will emerge as the winner after a series of legal challenges.
It was a bizarre, unprecedented speech which will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Here’s what he said.
‘I won‘
Trump described in-person votes as “legal” and mail-in and absentee votes as “illegal”. Most states have always allowed mail-in ballots, but some relaxed restrictions on who could vote via mail due to the pandemic.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said.
Lost leads
“We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away” Trump said.
His lead in Georgia was “whittled down and now it is getting to a point where I go from winning by a lot to perhaps being even down a little bit”.
“It is amazing how one-sided the mail-in ballots are,” he added, seeming to forget he discouraged his own voters from using the postal service to vote
Fraud and binoculars
Trump then alleged that swing states were controlled by the Democrats, which is why his lead had changed.
“Pennsylvania … is part of a corrupt Democrat machine. I went to school there and I know a lot about it, it hasn’t changed … it has got worse,” he said, adding the Democrats have allowed ballots to be received three days after the election and accepted ballots without postmarks.
The Supreme Court ruled Pennsylvania can accept ballots postmarked before election day. Those without a postmark will be counted unless there is evidence they were mailed after election day.
“They are trying obviously to commit fraud and there is no question about that. In Philadelphia, observers are being kept far away, very far away, so far that people are using binoculars to try and see,” Trump said, before turning to Michigan and Detroit.
“Pollers in Michigan were duplicating ballots … Detroit is another place and I would not say it has the best reputation for election integrity,” he said, adding cardboard had been placed over windows to block observes, with “unexplained” ballots appearing late.
There is no evidence of the fraud Trump alleges has taken place. Two cases of voter fraud have been found nationally — both were Republican votes, with one man in Pennsylvania trying to vote for his mother, and another in Nevada trying to vote twice.
Online polls were part of the conspiracy, Trump added.
“Everyone now recognises media polling was election interference in the truest sense of that word by powerful special interests. These really phony polls … were designed to keep out voters at home, create the illusion of momentum for Mr Biden and diminish Republican’s ability to raise funds,” he said.
“It is not a question of who wins, Republican, Democrats, Joe, myself, we cannot let [voter fraud] happen to our country.”
More litigation
Trump flagged further lawsuits in the coming days.
“[There have been] lots of litigations, it is a tremendous, tremendous amount of litigation generally because of how unfair this process was. I have been talking about mail-in voting for a long time and it has destroyed our system. It is a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt even if they are not by nature but they become corrupt,” he said.
Following litigation, Trump claims “we will win the election very easily”.
In stark comparison
Just over an hour earlier in his home state of Delaware, Democratic nominee Joe Biden gave an update urging calm.
Going from Biden’s speech to Trump’s is jolting. Biden stuck to his usual reserved and optimistic rhetoric, preaching about togetherness — and kept his update to two minutes.
“Each ballot must be counted … Democracy is sometimes messy. It sometimes requires a little patience as well. But that patience has been rewarded now as it has been for 240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world,” he said.
“I ask all people to stay calm: the process is working, the count is being completed, and we’ll know very soon … We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator [Kamala] Harris and I will be winners.”
He gave the speech after he and Harris attended a virtual briefing on COVID-19 and the economic crisis
What else happened?
Two of Trump’s lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia to stop ballot counting were dismissed. His campaign had a small win in Pennsylvania though, with Republican observers granted permission to observe from a distance of two meters as officials unpacked and scanned ballots.
“240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world”
Sorry, Joe but no. Despite American’s being so convinced of their own execptionalism, there’s almost nothing about American civic society that is the envy of the world.
Probably quite a few autocrats & dictators would envy their “system”.
It not only serves well to sterilise democratic aspiration but, like many parasites – ticks, leeches etc – injects a numbing agent so that the pain of being relentlessly screwed, decade & decade is barely felt by the electorate.
Wilkinson & Pickett a well respected pair of sociological researchers capture the essence of Trump very well in their book “The Inner Level” (2018). They refer to Trump as a narcissist largely driven by pathological tendencies. Narcissistic characteristics tend to revolve around: self-obsession, the need for constant attention and flattery from others, and having unrealistic fantasies of success. The pathological narcissist is often characterized as lacking in empathy, reacting badly to criticism and are excessively preoccupied with themselves, with success and their image.
Wilkinson & Pickett regard Trump’s incessant tweeting as suggesting a personality dominated by ‘ self-grandiosity, callousness, poor sense of self-control’ among others. Furthermore they contend that narcissists ‘tend to be regarded as effective leaders probably because of the confidence they exude’. However, they argue that narcissists become increasingly unpopular as their ‘arrogance and aggression come to the fore’.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Trump’s ‘arrogance and aggression’ appeal to the personality of a substantial portion of the US population. It is also apparent that the pathological narcissist has no compunction in lying, cheating, cutting corners and bending/breaking rules in his/her quest for power. In this they are not that far removed from some of our wealthiest business leaders.
An interesting point here is that Wilkinson & Pickett argue that one is more likely to see the emergence of such personality types in more unequal societies such as the United States.
Many people will shrug it off as yet more Trump BS, media correctly will see it as insane – and then the actual, not insignificant, idiot part of the American population will take it serious and take action.
Can someone explain to me what would happen if this draws out to the next inaugaration, if Biden gets seriously ill before it is settled, if Trump draws out all these “alleged ‘ cases of fraud in the count.
How does it work if Biden wins but the cases hold up in court, is there a precedent?
It can get really messy, The Atlantic has a long piece around the possible scenario’s: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/