President Donald Trump is behaving, quite literally, as if basic math is somehow rigged against him. His behavior, however, isn’t just ridiculous — it’s also a fundamental threat to the foundation of the American democratic process, because he has shown essentially no indication whatsoever of any willingness to ever concede the election at any point. His hostility towards the prospect of conceding doesn’t change the reality of his seemingly impending loss — but it does fuel unhinged conspiracy theories among his millions of followers, some of whom have recently turned out for in-person demonstrations. Two heavily armed men were arrested just recently in the vicinity of a Pennsylvania vote-counting facility, which they may have planned to violently attack.
On Twitter this Friday evening, Trump ranted that Joe Biden “should not wrongfully claim the office of the President,” adding that he “could make that claim also.” First of all: no “claim” to the office of the presidency has any legal weight whatsoever if the votes aren’t there to back up this claim. Additionally: Trump, quite literally, already did claim victory! In the hours after polls closed on Election Day, in a deranged middle-of-the-night speech from the White House, Trump insisted that “frankly, we did win this election.” This claim is just utterly divorced from reality. It doesn’t reflect facts. Even as of the point of these latest tweets from Trump, decisive votes remained to be counted around the country.
Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2020
On Twitter this Friday evening, Trump also displayed a fundamental lack of understanding about the math of elections. He belligerently proclaimed that he “had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by,” and he suggested that these leads could “return” as his campaign’s “legal proceedings move forward.”
I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2020
The reason that the vote tallies changed as time went on is because votes were counted. How on earth can Trump expect to get away with suggesting that these very straightforward developments — the counting of votes and the changing of tallies — are somehow conspiracies against him? Well, plenty of Republicans seem fine with it.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below:
