The Trump cult is at it again. In a rather deranged-sounding speech that he delivered in the middle of the night from the White House, President Donald Trump proclaimed that “frankly, we did win this election” — despite the fact that, at the time of his speech, large numbers of valid votes remained to be counted. Trump had definitely not won the election at the time of his speech (and he still hasn’t won it as of early Wednesday morning), but this fact did not stop him from repeatedly proclaiming his belief that his campaign had been victorious.
By all appearances, Trump’s comments underline just how disconnected from reality that he really is. He is willfully refusing to grasp the basic fact that post-Election Day changes to vote tallies do not automatically suggest any kind of fraud whatsoever. These post-Election Day changes to vote tallies — which Trump promised to fight in the court system — represent valid votes getting counted, which is a basic democratic process. Trump, however, sounds ready and willing to push democracy to the side. His claim that he had won the election was a lie.
Trump ranted to his supporters:
‘I want to thank the American people for their tremendous support. Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people, and we won’t stand for it. We will not stand for it… All of a sudden, I said, what happened to the election? It’s off, and we have all these announcers saying: what happened? And then they said, ohhh — because you know what happened? They knew they couldn’t win, so they said: let’s go to court.’
Watch Trump’s reality-disconnected comments below:
Trump lies, claims "a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise" his supporters, even though Democrats only want all the votes to be lawfully tallied pic.twitter.com/NmrqrHW08L
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 4, 2020
There is not and has never been a Democratic plot to rig or steal the election via the court system. Trump is implicitly encouraging an outright rejection of basic democratic norms on the part of his followers. He is attempting to shred the fabric of society in service of his ego — and in so doing, he’s showing his stunning level of willful ignorance.
Biden has taken the lead in Michigan, according to the AP
Along with AZ, NV and WI, he now leads in states worth 270 electoral votes–the number needed to winhttps://t.co/8bdQchP5zB— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 4, 2020
During his White House meltdown over vote-counting, Trump insisted that “we want all voting to stop.” Voting had already stopped at the time of his speech! Late additions to vote tallies do not represent votes getting newly cast. The changes represent valid votes getting counted. These concepts are not difficult.
Trump ranted:
‘This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity, for the good of this nation, this is a very big moment. This is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. It’s a very sad moment. To me, this is a very sad moment, and we will win this, and as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.’
Watch Trump’s democracy-threatening comments below:
"This is a major fraud on our nation … so we'll going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop." — Trump is counting on SCOTUS to help him steal the election pic.twitter.com/MHF60tszkN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 4, 2020
