WASHINGTON – Referring to “horror stories”, President Donald Trump on Thursday unleashed a shower of fabricated accusations in an arrogant attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the US election.
Trump stands behind the presidential seal and uses an institution in the White House that symbolizes the power of his office to attack an election he portrays with fraud and corruption. One allegation after another had no basis, such as his accusation that election officials in Pennsylvania and Detroit tried to ban election observers from polling stations.
LOOK: An election law expert on what he sees in Trump’s lawsuits
A look at his remarks when Democrat Joe Biden made progress with the electoral votes needed to claim the presidency.
TRUMP: ‘We hear stories that are horror stories. … We think there’s going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence and so much evidence. ”
THE FACTS: Trump has provided no evidence of systemic voting or counting problems. In fact, the counting process across the country has gone smoothly for the most part, even with the U.S. battling the coronavirus pandemic.
One of his main complaints, that the score that wasted last election day, is deserving. No presidential election counted all the votes on the same day, and there is no law or even the expectation that this should be the case. The increase in postal ballots and the high turnout made the process slower than usual in some, but not all cases.
PENNSYLVANIA
TRUMP: “In Pennsylvania, partisan Democrats allowed ballots to be received in the state three days after the election, and we think much more than that and they count it without any postage stamps or any identification.”
THE FACTS: “Partisan Democrats” did not determine this. The state Supreme Court ruled that ballots posted before the end of election day could be received until three days later and could still be counted. The U.S. Supreme Court investigated the case and did not obstruct the three-day period. It may review the matter again later.
A number of other states have also provided for the crushing of ballots by mail.
TRUMP: ‘Pennsylvania Democrats went to the state Supreme Court to ban our election observers. … They do not want anyone in there. They do not want anyone to be watching them while they are counting the ballots. ”
THE FACTS: This is false. He is misrepresenting a court case in the state. No one has tried to ban the ballot box representing each party in the election. Democrats did not try to stop Republican representatives from observing the process.
The most important issue in the case was how close observers representing the parties can get to election workers who process the polls in Philadelphia. The Trump campaign sued to bring the observers closer than the guidelines allowed. A court ruled in favor of the request.
MICHIGAN
TRUMP: “Our campaign has been denied access to observe any score in Detroit.”
THE FACTS: This is false.
Absent ballot papers were counted in a conference center in the city center, where about 134 counting boards were set up. Each party allowed one spectator per board, city clerk Janice Winfrey said.
She said she was unaware of the removal of Republican pollsters, but noted that some were “very aggressive and tried to intimidate the polling workers and processors.”
Mark Brewer, former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said he was inside the conference center and access to some people from both sides was cut off at some point due to capacity constraints related to the pandemic.
GEORGIA
TRUMP: “The electoral apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats.”
THE FACTS: No, a Republican, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Brad Raffensperger, is overseeing the state election.
TRUMP: ‘The 11th lane decided that in Georgia the votes should be by election day, and that it should be by election day. And they were not. Votes come in after election day. ”
THE FACTS: This is not an accurate description of the decision in question or what happened during the election in Georgia.
Although the court ruled that votes must be by 19:00 on election day in order to count, an exception was made to ballot papers of members of the U.S. military serving overseas. It can be received until 5pm Friday and still counts. Electoral officials in Georgia are still counting votes, but these are votes legally received.
‘ILLEGAL’ VOTES
TRUMP: “If you count the legitimate votes, I win easily. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. ”
THE FACTS: It is unfounded.
Neither Trump’s campaign assistants nor election officials have identified a significant number of “illegal” votes, much less the huge numbers it would take to destroy an easy victory by Trump. He often speaks as if the consent itself is not legal. But it has unfolded in line with state rules, in some cases adapted by officials to help voters get through the pandemic safely.
TRUMPand complained that covert activities had dropped his lead in important races: “We’ve actually won a lot of important places already.”
THE FACTS: The change in wealth he is talking about is explained by the nature of the count of votes in the states, not by any sudden surge of misunderstanding that others have not seen.
Large cities are often slow to report their numbers, and votes tend to skew democratically. Similarly, many states tend to count ballots at the end of the process. That portion of the vote tended to favor Biden, especially since Trump had urged his supporters in advance to abstain and to vote in person early or on election day.
Trump ended election night with clues in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, among the states that play the most, and then he saw his advantage begin to break Wednesday and beyond. Biden won Wisconsin and Michigan; Georgia and Pennsylvania cannot be called yet.
Dale reports from Philadelphia. Associated Press authors Amanda Seitz in Chicago, Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and Colleen Long and Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report.