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On Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed he had won the US election, even though final results have not yet been released, and said he would go to the Supreme Court to dispute the vote count.
US President Donald Trump raises his fist after speaking on Election Night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, early November 4, 2020. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that he had won the U.S. election, even though final results have yet to be released, and said he would go to the Supreme Court to dispute the vote count.
“We won this election,” Trump said in an extraordinary speech from the ceremonial East Room of the White House. “This is a fraud on the American public.”
The Republican, who according to initial results is in a contest with Democrat Joe Biden, said he would go to court and “we want the voting to stop.”
It seemed to mean stopping the counting of mail-in ballots that can be legally accepted by state boards of elections after Tuesday’s election, as long as they are mailed on time.
The issue could become crucial in states that are still tabulating votes in a very close race.
Democrats are believed to cast more mail ballots than Trump supporters.
Trump made his claim of premature victory, unprecedented for a US president, shortly after 2:20 a.m. (0720 GMT), as states across the vast country worked to count the votes.
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A record number of votes were cast before Election Day, totaling more than 100 million, due to fears of congregating at polling stations in person during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump began with a sometimes rambling statement expressing disappointment that he believed he was on the road to certain victory, but then the results stopped coming in and the Republican-friendly state of Arizona called Biden.
“We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything and all of a sudden it just got canceled,” Trump said without fully explaining what he meant.
“This is a fraud against the American public. It is an embarrassment to our country. We were preparing to win this election. Frankly, we won this election,” he said.
Trump said that “we will go to the Supreme Court of the United States. We want all voting to stop.”
There was an immediate backlash from Trump’s own Republican supporters.
“It’s a bad strategic decision. It’s a bad political decision,” Chris Christie, a Trump adviser, said of the midnight speech.
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