President Donald Trump, addressing the uncertain election results early Wednesday morning, reminded the nation that he had predicted a contested result since Democrats had begun urging states to send mail-in ballots to millions of voters.
Trump was leading in several key battleground states that had not reported final results because they were waiting to count absentee and mail-in ballots.
In Arizona, Trump was trailing at the time he spoke, because Election Day votes had not yet been counted, while mail-in votes had. The Trump campaign insisted that it could still win Arizona and pushed back against Fox News, which had called the state for Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump spoke in the East Room of the White House shortly after 2:00 a.m. EST, saying that he had anticipated the exact scenario that had unfolded.
“They knew they couldn’t win,” he said, “so they said let’s go to court. “And did I predict this, Newt [Gingrich]? Did i say this?
“I’ve been saying this from the day I heard they were going to send out tens of millions of ballots. I said exactly — because either they were going to win, or if they didn’t win, they’ll take us to court.”
Democrats had urged states to adopt vote-by-mail, ostensibly to prevent the risk of coronavirus transmutation in polling places.
However, many of those states that had never used mail-in ballots on a large scale before suffered logistical problems in primary elections.
Other states with existing vote-by-mail systems sent ballots to registered voters, whether they were requested or not, leading to some ballots being delivered to incorrect addresses, and many others being disqualified.
A review of Trump’s tweets about vote-by-mail suggests that the president was largely correct — he did predict the problem.
For example:
State of Nevada “thinks” that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, “I think” I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections. @RussVought45 @USTreasury
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020
The United States cannot have all Mail In Ballots. It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history. People grab them from mailboxes, print thousands of forgeries and “force” people to sign. Also, forge names. Some absentee OK, when necessary. Trying to use Covid for this Scam!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020
Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
The Unsolicited Mail In Ballot Scam is a major threat to our Democracy, & the Democrats know it. Almost all recent elections using this system, even though much smaller & with far fewer Ballots to count, have ended up being a disaster. Large numbers of missing Ballots & Fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2020
“Mail-Vote Madness in Pennsylvania – The swing state is heading toward an election crackup that could draw the entire country into a legal brawl.”
.@GovernorTomWolf of Pennsylvania should not be allowed to defraud the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES! https://t.co/GmQ1v2NEs3
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2020
Wow! 100,000 Mail In Ballots in New York City a total MESS. Mayor and Governor have no idea what to do. Big Fraud, Unfixable! Cancel Ballots and go out and VOTE, just like in past decades, when there were no problems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2020
Over time, Twitter began attaching warnings to Trump’s tweets, as in the following examples:
There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2020
Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2020
In an earlier speech Wednesday morning, Biden assured his supporters that he would win when all the votes were counted, though Trump was leading in most of the states Biden needed to win.
Story cited here.