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Trump’s appearance threatens to make an unpredictable election even more chaotic. But Joe Biden and the media were prepared.
Declaration of war: Donald Trump during his appearance at the White House on Election Night.
It was after 2 am in Washington, the president wanted to speak in a few minutes, and on CNN they said: Which Donald Trump would you see? The Trump teleprompter that, more or less, sticks to a prepared script? Or the Trump of Twitter who says his instincts and who designs an alternative reality?
The president took the stage, a teleprompter was installed, but it was the Trump of Twitter who was standing in front of a forest of flags. “Millions and millions of Americans voted for us,” he said, “but a very sad group of people is trying to steal their voice.” What is happening is a great fraud and a shame for the country.
Trump listed the states where nothing had been decided yet and recorded them himself: Georgia won, North Carolina won, too. Loud applause in the audience, the president smiled, but the smile seemed tortured. As if he didn’t completely trust what he said himself.
Trump said opponents knew they couldn’t win, so they planned to go to court. He then announced that they would call the Supreme Court themselves. “We want the voting to stop.” In fact, voting had stopped hours earlier; what happened was the counting process.
On Fox News: “This is an extremely explosive situation”
Some stations, such as MSNBC and NBC, shut down before the eight-minute speech was over. On Fox News, the broadcaster that often acts as Trump’s speaker, host Chris Wallace said, “This is an extremely explosive situation and the president just struck a match.”
Trump’s attempt to discredit the election on election night is unprecedented, as it has not been in the past four years. So the attack on the electoral process was not a surprise.
Especially since it emerged: Trump had been claiming for months without evidence that vote-by-mail was prone to fraud. His team had devised a legal strategy that suited the scenario that formed Wednesday night: one in which Trump is ahead in several major states, but in which votes cast by mail ultimately turn out in favor of Joe Biden could tip over.
Long before the election, commentators in Washington wondered what would happen if the president were declared the winner on election night. Little happened at first, the media, including social media, had apparently been armed. On CBS, Trump’s speech was captioned with a banner: “CBS News has not yet predicted a winner for the presidential election.” On Twitter, a Trump tweet was warned that the content could be misleading. Trump accused Democrats of wanting to steal the election.
Even Republican voices urged caution. Chris Christie, a former New Jersey governor and Trump adviser, told ABC that the president’s comments were a bad political and strategic decision.
Biden walks in and has a message: patience is needed
His challenger Joe Biden was apparently armed for Trump’s attack on the electoral process. He had performed in his home state of Delaware an hour and a half before the president. His speech lasted only three minutes and had a clear theme: patience is required.
“We have to be patient until the hard work of counting is done,” Biden said. It is not up to him or Donald Trump to declare who won the election. That is the decision of the American people. Biden’s message was obviously directed not only at his followers, some of whom honked in front of him in their cars, but also at the president and the general public.
“We believe,” Biden said, “that we are on the right track to win this election.” He smiled too, but the corners of his mouth quickly sank again. The electoral forecasts predicted a clear victory for him. Instead, it was a tremendous match for him, and an election for the country that could be even more chaotic after the president’s appearance.
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