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- Donald Trump falsely claimed that the US presidential election was being stolen.
- But there is no evidence to suggest a large-scale fraud.
- Trump criticized the vote-by-mail.
When America’s tortuous presidential election seemed to come to a close, Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday and claimed without evidence that a second term was being stolen from him.
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The White House press conference was the president’s first public appearance in more than 36 hours, and it came after a day marked by tweets showing his displeasure as his Democratic rival Joe Biden edged closer to victory.
In his 17-minute presentation, Trump made a series of inaccurate comments about the election and his conduct. He left without answering questions.
AFP analyzes what he said.
2020 UNITED STATES ELECTIONS | Get the latest news
‘Illegal’ votes
“If you count the legal votes, I win easily. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said.
The vote count is in progress. The president appeared to be drawing a contrast between the votes cast on Election Day and the votes counted later.
In several key states, including Pennsylvania, which Trump must win to be reelected, in-person ballots were counted immediately after the polls closed on November 3, giving him a huge advantage over Biden.
But as ballots sent by mail or deposited in official mailboxes were counted, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the president’s advantage was eroding. Both types of voting are legal.
Vote by mail
“I’ve been talking about voting by mail for a long time. It has really destroyed our system. It is a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt even if they are not, by nature. But they become corrupt. It’s too easy,”, Trump said.
The president has consistently criticized mail voting, saying it would trigger a “rigged” election. But US officials and international observers have said there has been no fraud.
“They’re finding ballots all of a sudden. It’s amazing how all those mail-in ballots are so one-sided,” he said, though his own warnings may have persuaded Republican voters not to vote by mail.
Voting by mail was in use in the United States long before the coronavirus pandemic, and it is a proven system that was greatly expanded this year.
“There is simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud,” Ellen Weintraub of the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) said as part of a 66-tweet thread in May as Trump stepped up his attacks. to vote by mail.
“We take all election-related threats seriously,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray, testifying Sept. 24 at a Senate national security hearing.
“We have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated effort at national electoral fraud in a major election, whether by mail or otherwise,” he said.
Victory claims
“We were winning at all the key locations, a lot actually, and then our numbers miraculously started to drop in secret,” Trump said.
He went on to claim that he won the battlefield states of Pennsylvania and Georgia by “a lot,” and also said he won Michigan.
Trump was once ahead in all three states, but his advantages diminished when the mail-in ballots were counted.
Biden now has a significant advantage in Michigan (US networks called him in his favor) and is rapidly closing the gap in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s lead in the southern state of Georgia fell to 0.1% as he spoke.
“This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election,” the president said of his opponents.
There is no evidence to support that claim.
Senate control
“We kept the Senate despite having twice as many seats to defend as the Democrats,” Trump said.
With votes still counted and at least one second round to come, final control of the upper house of the US legislature has not been determined.
As of 02:30 GMT on Friday, the divide is 48-48 between Democrats and Republicans, according to The New York Times.
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