Trump claims win, asserting illegal votes, ‘suppression polls’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WKBT) — President Donald Trump, insisting that he is winning the election during a news conference at the White House, assailed what he described as “suppression polls” designed to discourage people from going to the polls.
As counting continues in several states — Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina and Pennsylvania — neither he nor Democratic candidate Joe Biden has achieved the 270 Electoral College votes needed, but the president slammed the election as fraudulent and rigged during the news conference shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday.
At the time, Biden had 264 Electoral College votes, including Arizona’s, to Trump’s 214, according to many media outlets. MSNBC has not awarded Arizona to Biden yet, so its electoral tally for the former vice president, so its Biden total is 253 — the same total CBS gives him.
Trump asserted that he won according to legal votes, alleging that many mail-in and absentee votes are illegal, which prompted MSNBC to cut away for a fact check saying there is no acknowledgement of illegal voting. Fox News continued to carry the news conference but afterwards, commentators said they have seen no evidence of fraudulent votes.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said.
Biden is leading in Arizona and Nevada, while Trump leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia, but the states are counting mail ballots.
“Democrats are the party of the big donors, the big media, the big tech, it seems,” Trump said. “And Republicans have become the party of the American worker, and that’s what’s happened.”
In his first public appearance since early Wednesday, when he also claimed victory, Trump contended that the Republican is the “party of inclusion” and declared that more non-white voters cast ballots for him than any Republican presidential candidate in decades.
“They’re trying to steal an election,” he said of Democrats. “They’re trying to rig an election.”
He further alleged fraudulent counting and “tremendous corruption in mail-in ballots.”
“I told people these things would happen,” he said.
He claimed “batches of votes” were brought into counting sites, adding that nobody knew where they came from.
“I want every legal vote counted,” he said, “no secret counting rooms.”
“We think we will win the election,” he said. “There will be a lot of litigation because we cannot allow an election to be stolen.”
“I’ve claimed states, and he’s (Biden) claimed states, but I believe courts will have to make the decisions.”
MSNBC anchor Brian Williams explained later that the network did not break away as a stunt but because Trump’s claims were false and dangerous.
wkbt
