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When Florida looks “red” the night of November 3, Trump and his advisers think the 2016 scenario is repeating itself, indicating that a “sweet effect” is on the way.
The atmosphere in the East Room of the White House was very optimistic at the time, as hundreds of people, including members of the Cabinet, ambassadors and former Trump loyalists, chatted and drank snacks. Officials who were once pessimistic about the president’s reelection chances have begun to envision the next four years in power.
But that joyous atmosphere suddenly sank at 11:20 pm, when Fox News “named” former Arizona Vice President Joe Biden, even though the state only counted 73% of the vote.
Trump and his aides immediately expressed their anger at the news. If it is true that Trump loses in Arizona, his overall prospects for victory are not bright.
President Trump speaks at the White House early morning 4/11. Image: AFP.
Trump’s election campaign anticipated that Arizona’s race could be tough, but Fox News’s iconic identification of Biden as the winner here made Arizona the first to switch sides among the states that had made the president’s victory in 2016.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who was on the phone all night with government officials and campaign personnel, confirmed that there were still unclaimed votes for Trump in his state.
Jason Miller, Trump’s political adviser, tweeted that the Fox News statement was inaccurate. He also called the media and asked them to withdraw their statement.
But it was not successful. A few hours later, the AP news agency also determined that Biden had won in Arizona. Meanwhile, other newspapers and news agencies such as the New York Times and CNN have reached no conclusions about the state. Now that 88% of the state’s votes have been counted, Biden has won 50.5%, while Trump has won 48.1%.
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, also contacted Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News. On the morning of November 4, Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, confirmed that the president would win Arizona with a difference of 30,000 votes.
Maintaining Arizona was crucial to Trump’s “narrow door” to victory, along with two other states on the battlefield, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Trump spends most of his time the night of November 3 and the morning of November 4 at the White House, following the election results on Fox News. He called several Republican governors. In conversations with the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, and the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, he asked them if there was a possibility of fraud.
On Twitter, Ducey stressed that all votes must be counted before a winner can be determined in Arizona.
In a state of anger and bitterness, the president and Biden’s aides gave a short speech in Wilmington, Delaware. “We think we’re on the right track,” Biden said.
As Biden spoke, the president tweeted for the first time that night, accusing Democrats of trying to “steal” the election without providing evidence. In the following tweet, he announced that he was also about to speak. A podium was installed in the East Room.
Trump’s advisers tried to persuade him to speak in the East Room before Biden’s speech, but were unsuccessful. In the end, they let Biden step forward.
Before speaking, Trump met with aides in the Oval Office to discuss how he should comment on the state of the contest, whether he should declare victory or adopt a more moderate tone.
In the end, he did not choose the second approach.
“This is a scam for the American public,” Trump announced to a crowd of supporters at 2:30 a.m. “This is a disgrace to our country. We are ready to win this election. To be honest, we won.” Trump’s comments immediately drew criticism from some allies, including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
As the resulting map became increasingly bad for the Trump campaign, Biden was determined to have won Michigan and Wisconsin, the president did not appear in public all day. He did not appear to be in the Oval Office because there were no Marines standing guard outside.
In the White House’s private living room, Trump continued to call supporters and friends throughout the morning, with some saying he seemed dismayed.
Outside the White House, aides began to analyze what caused his failure in Arizona. Some attendees say Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee and Brad Parscale, a former campaign manager, had advised Trump to go to Arizona more often, but he often ignored it. Part of the reason, they said, was that Trump didn’t like going to the West and had to sleep through the night on his trip.
These people and some other aides also tried to advise Trump to stop attacking Senator John McCain, who was well liked in Arizona. The president had a bad relationship with McCain and continued to criticize even after the senator passed away two years ago.
Some have argued that if the campaign did not “swing its arms over their heads” before the Covid-19 outbreak, they would have had more money to spend on advertising in Biden states that won or had a small lead like Wisconsin. , Michigan and Nevada.
But others still hold the view that spending a lot in the early stages is correct, including Parscale. It was he who worked to increase the support of Latino voters, the key group that made Trump’s victory in Florida.
How the American vote is counted. Video: Vox.
On November 4, the president’s family tried to question the validity of the ballots. Trump joked at a rally that if he lost the election, he would never speak to his adult children again.
Kushner called many, looking for someone like James Baker who could lead a legal effort to oppose vote counting in some states. Baker was the man in charge of George W. Bush’s successful 2000 vote recount.
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., works at the campaign headquarters in Virginia. His second son, Eric Trump, speaks at a press conference in Philadelphia with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
“They don’t let the polls do their job,” Eric Trump said angrily, questioning the ongoing vote count in Pennsylvania. Giuliani, Trump’s private attorney, also said the Pennsylvania election is “stolen” without giving evidence. He raised the idea of a “national lawsuit” over the fraud allegations, but did not specify.
Many of Trump’s colleagues during this election season are those who have been on the campaign for four years. But this time, Trump is in a much more difficult position.
As of November 4, some White House officials and outside advisers said they hoped, but not so optimistic, that Trump’s legal challenges in some states could change the trajectory of the campaign. race. The president himself hinted in a tweet that “a large number of votes were secretly canceled” caused him to lose in Michigan. Twitter quickly labeled the tweet “misleading information.”
Phuong Vu (According to the The Times of New York City)
