President Donald Trump continues to adamantly refuse to accept the results of the recent presidential election, which he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. He alleges that widespread fraud plagued the process, but there’s simply no meaningfully conclusive evidence whatsoever that backs up his claims. On Twitter this Friday afternoon, shortly after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal from the Trump team, Trump insinuated that above-average Democratic wins in certain big cities were automatically dubious — but according to an article that he seems to cite right there in the tweet, Democratic wins in these big cities were not actually above expectations! It’s worth noting: either way, Biden decisively won.
Trump posted the following message:
‘Biden did poorly in big cities (Politico), except those of Detroit (more votes than people!), Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee, which he had to win. Not surprisingly, they are all located in the most important swing states, and are long known for being politically corrupt!’
Biden did poorly in big cities (Politico), except those of Detroit (more votes than people!), Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee, which he had to win. Not surprisingly, they are all located in the most important swing states, and are long known for being politically corrupt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
On a foundational level: there’s no meaningfully conclusive evidence whatsoever for the president’s insinuation that the big cities that he mentioned are home to political machines that have corrupted the electoral processes. There are no big dumps of fake votes; there are no big bags or boxes or whatever else of fake ballots. Claims otherwise are fanciful, conspiratorial nonsense.
Going on from there: the POLITICO article that he seems to be citing makes the exact opposite conclusion. Trump says that Biden “did poorly in big cities” except certain must-win spots, but a November 15 article from POLITICO about Biden and big cities concludes that the president-elect “failed to produce the massive big-city margins some Democrats expected” across the board. The article cites Philadelphia and Detroit as examples where Biden ran a little behind potential expectations. As the article explains, suburbs helped push Biden over the top. For instance, in Oakland County, Michigan, which is in the Detroit area, Biden won by about 14 percent — 6 points above Hillary’s 2016 winning margin of 8 percent.
If the evidence of supposed election fraud was as compelling as the GOP claims, then one might expect that they’d be able to prove as much in court — but the Republican post-election court record features failure after failure. Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below:
