AP fact check: Trump repeats false allegations on a day of reckoning

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has insisted on his hopeless case to overturn the election result before a crowd of supporters opened a joint sitting of Congress on Wednesday to count the electoral votes cast for the presidential election.

Trump has been telling false stories for two months about the outcome of the election in an attempt to promote Biden’s victory. He is not retiring now, on a day of reckoning that is in full swing to alleviate his defeat, despite the plans of some of his allies in Congress to provoke the certification of the results of the election college.

He also drives unfounded theories about the two Senate elections Tuesday in Georgia, where the Democrats got a seat and the other game is too early to call.

An example of Trump’s claims from a Washington rally and on Twitter.

TRUMP ON PENSION

TRUMP on the election results: “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we will win the election.” – speaks during Wednesday’s rally.

TRUMP: Pence “must agree to send it back.” – rally.

TROMP: “All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, it’s a time for extreme courage! ‘- tweet Wednesday.

THE FACTS: This is a fantasy. Vice President Mike Pence has no authority under the Constitution, congressional rules, the law or use to refer the results back to the states. He does not have the right to do what Trump calls ‘the right thing’.

Pence will chair the congressional vote of the Electoral College and perform his ceremonial duty to announce who has won the majority of votes for president and vice president. Whatever sympathetic words he may utter for Trump’s grievances, Pence has no way of avoiding the certification of Biden as the next president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

According to people close to him, he is also not expected to try, despite pressure from Trump to do so.

Biden won 306 votes to Trump’s 232. It takes 270 to win the presidency.

A REDO?

TRUMP, on the statements: “They want to reaffirm.” – rally.

TRUMP: “The States want to redo their votes. They found out they were voting on a FRAUD. Legislators were never approved. Let them do it. BE STRONG! “__ tweet Wednesday.

THE FACTS: This is also false. All states confirmed their results as fair and accurate, a statement made by Republican and Democratic officials. There is no prospect of a do-over. Nor was there a sudden revelation of deception.

State and federal election officials and Trump’s own attorney general said no systematic fraud was found in the election and that there are no errors on the scale that could change the outcome. Judges have widely agreed, whether appointed by Republicans or Democrats. And Trump has thrown two challenges through the Supreme Court, which include three Trump-nominated judges.

ELECTION RESULTS

TRUMP: “We did not lose.” – rally.

THE FACTS: He lost.

Biden won by the same margin of the Electoral College as Trump did in 2016 – a result that Trump called a landslide when he won it.

Unlike Trump, Biden also won the popular vote.

PENNSYLVANIA

TRUMP, on Pennsylvania results: “You had 205,000 more votes than voters.”

THE FACTS: Not true. Here, Trump is trying to give weight to an unfounded conspiracy theory of social media and unreliable websites.

The allegation that Pennsylvania’s certification of Biden’s victory in the state was fraudulent comes from a time when the records were inconsistent. The numbers certified by Pennsylvania counties showed that 6.9 million votes were cast, while another state data system showed that 6.7 million voters went to the polls. There was a simple explanation: election officials have not yet uploaded their data to the latter system.

Wanda Murren, communications director for the Pennsylvania State Department, which is responsible for elections, said people were thinking up “obvious misinformation” about the matter. Trump is among them.

MICHIGAN

TRUMP: “In Detroit, 139 percent of the registered voters were.” – rally.

THE FACTS: No, it was not. The city’s official election results show that the election on November 3 was only 51%, with 257,619 votes cast by the city’s 506,305 registered voters.

GEORGIA SENATE RACES

TRUMP, referring to Georgia: “They only found 50,000 ballots late last night.” – tweet Wednesday.

TRUMP: “It looks like they are setting up a big ‘voter pool’ against the Republican candidates. Are you waiting to see how many votes they need? ” – tweet Tuesday night.

THE FACTS: No, Georgia election officials did not just “find” 50,000 ballots or manipulate “voter waste” to the detriment of Republicans.

It is typical that large numbers of results are announced on election night and the next morning, with clues often changing.

On Tuesday, for example, Floyd County, Georgia, a Republican stronghold, announced all of its results at once, giving the GOP candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue an early boost. Such results were later opposed when densely populated provinces, which often favored democratic candidates, announced their numbers.

Loeffler eventually lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock, leaving the race between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff undecided.

Associated Press authors Ali Swenson in Seattle and Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report.

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