I have watched or read the transcript of every Trump speech since the end of 2016. I have cataloged thousands and thousands of his false allegations.
I have never seen him lie more thoroughly and seriously than on Thursday night in the White House.
Here is an overview:
Election theft?
Trump claims that anonymous opponents of him ‘try to steal an election’ and ‘try to direct an election’.
Facts first: This is completely unfounded. This election is legal. Trump’s opponents are not trying to steal it. Electoral officers simply count legally extended votes.
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia
Trump claimed to have “won” the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, citing his significant early clues in the vote counts there.
Facts first: This is false. Of course, keeping a lead before all the votes are counted is not the same as winning – and Trump lost to Wisconsin and Michigan, according to CNN projections. At the time of his speech, he was also in trouble in Pennsylvania, as votes were counted from Democratic areas, and his margin in Georgia is shrinking rapidly as the count continues.
Instem-stem
Trump cites the consensus as a corrupt system, adding later that there is “tremendous corruption and fraud going on.”
The legitimacy of the score, part 1
Trump began his speech by saying, “If you count the legal votes, I win easily. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal our election.”
Facts first: This is again just false. Trump was on the verge of defeat because legitimate votes were still being counted. There was no basis for his suggestion that “illegal votes” be counted, certainly not that such votes were the reason he was in trouble in the election.
The legitimacy of the score, part 2
Trump claimed: “We actually won at all the key polls and our numbers started miraculously starting …” He added: “They want to find out how many votes they need and then it seems to be able to find them. They wait and wait and then they get it … “
Facts first: There is no basis for Trump’s suggestion that something ominous has caused some of his clues to shrink, or that someone is manipulating the votes over and over again. His clues have shrunk in some states because completely legitimate ballots have been counted. Because many more Democrats than Republicans preferred to vote by mail, the order of the scores in these states over time Trump lost ground in the vote totals.
In other states like Florida, where ballots used to be counted as personal votes, Trump eventually won in the entire field – such as Arizona, which remained too close to call at the time of his speech.
The legitimacy of the score, part 3
Trump claimed: ‘In each case, there have been several hours on election night with counting, with results from major Democratic governments, appearing later. They definitely appeared, and everyone had the name Biden on them, or almost everything, I think almost everyone. They all had the name Biden on it, which is a little weird. ‘
Facts first: Trump’s insinuation is unfounded. Different states counted their ballots at different speeds, but there is no reason to claim that the results were suspiciously “withheld” – some provinces and states always take a while to count and report – or that there is something suspicious was to Biden’s dominance in the late stages of the count in some states. Again, Biden’s profit was the result of the legal ballots being counted.
It’s not true that ‘all’ or ‘almost all’ ballots counted Wednesday or Thursday were for Biden. Biden led Trump handy in these polls, but Trump got tens of thousands of votes from postal voters in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The legitimacy of the score, part 4
Trump said: “It’s amazing how the ballot papers are so one-sided.”
Facts first: There is nothing suspicious about the fact that far more Biden voters than Trump voters preferred to vote by mail: Biden encouraged his supporters to do so, while Trump relentlessly dismissed email voting as fraudulent and insecure.
Democrats and the score
Trump said, “There are only a few states left to decide in the presidential race. The voting equipment of those states is controlled by Democrats in all cases.” He later added that “the electoral apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats.”
Facts first: This is false. Georgia’s leading election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, is a Republican. So did Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske of Nevada, a state where the race was close at the time.
There is also no basis for indicating that Democratic election officials in other states have done anything wrong. And it is local provinces that count the votes.
Voting and Election Day?
Trump has stated that “no illegal voting” may be allowed after election day, indicating that such illegal voting is taking place.
Facts first: Votes are not cast after election day; votes are counted as always after election day. And some countries accept ballots received after election day if posted on or before election day.
Unsolicited ballot papers
Trump claims that states have sent out tens of millions of “unsolicited” ballots without any affirmative action. “He referred to states that had mailed to each registered voter by ballot without requiring a specific request.
Detroit and Philadelphia
Trump claims: “Detroit and Philadelphia, known as two of the most corrupt political places in our country, can easily not be responsible for designing the outcome of a presidential race, a very important presidential race.”
Facts first: There was no basis for Trump’s proposal that Detroit and Philadelphia did anything wrong in this election, let alone that they ‘design the outcome’. Their local provinces simply counted votes, like every other country.
Election Observers in Detroit
Trump claims: “Our campaign has been denied access to observe any count in Detroit.”
Grayer said she saw two people being kicked out, one a Republican who refused to wear a mask over their nose, and one of indefinite commitment because they caused a disturbance while wearing a Halloween mask has. But this is not the same as not allowing any Trump observers.
Shutters
Trump claims: ‘One important hub for counting ballots in Detroit again covered the windows with large pieces of cardboard and therefore they wanted to protect and block the counting area. They did not want anyone to see the count, even though it was observers, legal observers who were supposed to be there. ‘
Facts first: It’s misleading: Republican dissidents were already inside the Detroit plant when some windows were closed Wednesday after additional Republicans showed up at the scene.
Garcia said in a statement: “Some – but not all – windows were covered because polling workers sitting just inside the windows expressed concern about people outside the center photographing and filming them and their work. Only the media are allowed to take pictures inside the counter and people outside the center did not listen to requests to stop the recording of voice workers and their paperwork.Hundreds of challengers from both parties were inside the central scoreboard all afternoon and all evening; dozens of reporters were also in the room, people outside the center could see through windows that were further away from the workspace at all times.
A pipe bursting in Georgia
Trump claims: “In Georgia, a pipe burst at a remote location that is completely unrelated to the place of what happened, and they stopped counting for four hours.”
The issue did cause a four-hour delay. No offices were damaged, officials said.
The legality of polls
Trump legitimately criticizes the inaccuracy of many polls. But then he said that “the pollsters knowingly committed it” and said that they were trying to “suppress” his supporters.
Facts first: It is unfounded. Trump was correct that some polls were over, but there is no evidence that the polls are trying to be wrong – to the great embarrassment of the public for themselves.
The status of the Senate
Trump said, “We kept the Senate despite having twice as many seats to defend as the Democrats.”
Facts first: It was unclear at the time whether Republicans would retain the Senate – in part because one race in Georgia was heading for a run-off election in January and that other Georgians would likely go to a run-off as well. (Some additional Senate races in other states, in which Republicans had clues, have also not been called by the media.)
CNN’s Tara Subramaniam contributed to this article.