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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump spent a second day in the White House Thursday mulling over election results that suggested a path to victory was slipping through his fingers, even as his campaign was projecting confidence.
Trump has not been seen in public since his untimely declaration of victory in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but the White House said it would deliver “comments” Thursday night. The flurry of pronouncements flowing from the White House before the election. has been reduced to a trickle.
And in the west wing, some attendees were watching returns warily and losing confidence that outstanding states would break Trump’s path.
Trump was monitoring the results and calling allies from the residence of the White House and the Oval Office. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Doug Ducey of Arizona were among those who responded to his calls.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said the president was “working,” but declined to elaborate. Trump’s concern over the election results was evident in his tweets.
“STOP THE COUNT!” But the president has no authority over the election count and stopping the count at that point would have resulted in a quick victory for his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
“ANY VOTE THAT ARRIVED AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!” He wrote later. That seemed to advocate for the removal of countless votes cast legally, including those of service members stationed abroad. Many states accept mail-in ballots after Election Day as long as they are postmarked Nov. 3.
Trump’s capitalized remarks had the tone of a last stand from a man who hates losing. They reflected a last-minute legal effort undertaken by his campaign on several key and indecisive battlefields that was largely dismissed by experts as superficial and unlikely to change the outcome in any significant way.
With only a handful of states yet to decide, Biden had a clear advantage over Trump in the election results still in development, but the president still had a narrow path towards the 270 electoral votes needed to win reelection. To prevail, Trump would have to win the remaining four states on the battlefield; Biden would have to win one.
Trump’s team outwardly expressed optimism.
“Donald Trump is alive and well,” Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a call with reporters Thursday morning, predicting that Trump would win Pennsylvania and other states that were too early to call.
The White House and campaign staff played the same waiting game as the rest of the nation, glumly glued to television screens and watching the results. In the west wing, some attendees have been watching returns warily, losing confidence that the outstanding states will break Trump’s path.
Some are almost resigned to the idea of a Trump loss and have been discussing future job prospects while others continue to make unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud.
They have been echoed by Trump, who has falsely claimed victory in several key states while amplifying unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about expected Democratic gains as legally cast absentee ballots and first votes were tabulated. .
Trump had no events on his schedule Thursday and made no reference to the growing coronavirus. New confirmed positive cases rose to an all-time high of more than 86,000 per day on average, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Hospitalizations are also setting records and deaths are on the rise, up 15% to an average of 846 deaths per day.
Biden received a private briefing on the virus Thursday afternoon, before leaving to tell the American public to be patient while waiting for the election results.
It was a very different tone from that of Trump, whose campaign issued a statement in capital letters from the president to rile his base.
“IF YOU COUNT THE LEGAL VOTES, I EASILY WIN THE ELECTION! IF YOU COUNT THE ILLEGAL AND LATE VOTES, THEY MAY STEAL THE ELECTION FROM US!” he said.
Officials are currently counting legal votes and there is no evidence of any kind of widespread fraud or alteration of decisions.
Nonetheless, the Trump campaign was sending loyalists such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former national intelligence director Ric Grenell to hold press conferences in states where legal challenges are mounting.
And while they were trying to sow public doubts about a possible loss of Trump, they announced that they would create a website and reopen a phone line to collect accounts of alleged fraud.
The campaign also bombarded supporters with fundraising messages warning of unsubstantiated Democratic efforts to “steal” the result. The effort had raised more than $ 10 million, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly. At least some of the money went to pay off the general election debt.
Meanwhile, the president’s allies, including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, took to Twitter to say what he called: “The utter inaction of virtually all ‘2024 GOP hopefuls.’
“They have a perfect platform to show that they are willing and able to fight, but instead they will cower before the media mob,” he wrote, adding: “Don’t worry, @realDonaldTrump will fight and you can watch as usual! “
Several of those who have been discussed as possible Republican candidates for 2024 quickly intervened, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Hale, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, a conservative activist.
Trump Jr, who has also been discussed as a possible future candidate, made it clear that the family has no interest in quietly waiting for the votes to be counted.
“The best thing for America’s future is that @realDonaldTrump goes to all-out war for this election to expose all the fraud, cheating, dead / missing voters of the state, that has been going on for far too long,” he wrote. “It’s time to clean up this mess and stop looking like a banana republic!” – AP
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