President Donald Trump continues to allege that fraudsters rigged the recently concluded presidential election against him, no matter the total lack of meaningful evidence supporting this idea. He has expressed public support for a new lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, who is trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the election results from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, alleging that these states unconstitutionally expanded mail-in voting. On Wednesday morning, Trump claimed on Twitter that there “is massive evidence of widespread fraud in the four states (plus) mentioned in the Texas suit,” which just is not accurate.
There is massive evidence of widespread fraud in the four states (plus) mentioned in the Texas suit. Just look at all of the tapes and affidavits!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
Trump and his allies have raised these claims of systematic election fraud in a slew of court cases around the country, and they have failed to notch a single victory that comes remotely close to shifting the outcome of the election. If the supposed evidence for their fraud theories was truly so compelling, then why have so many conservative and liberal judges rejected the claims? Would Trump suggest that the judges are in on the imaginary fraud too? Attorney General Bill Barr, who often seems like a Trump loyalist, has insisted that no evidence of election outcome-altering fraud has emerged — would Trump suggest that Bill Barr is in on the plot too?
On Wednesday, Trump added the following message on Twitter:
‘We will soon be learning about the word “courage”, and saving our Country. I received hundreds of thousands of legal votes more, in all of the Swing States, than did my opponent. ALL Data taken after the vote says that it was impossible for me to lose, unless FIXED!’
We will soon be learning about the word “courage”, and saving our Country. I received hundreds of thousands of legal votes more, in all of the Swing States, than did my opponent. ALL Data taken after the vote says that it was impossible for me to lose, unless FIXED!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
Trump’s claims are simply fictional. He talks as if his allegations of receiving “hundreds of thousands of legal votes more” than Biden are proven, but they’re simply not established fact, at all. His claims are based in ignorance, willful or otherwise. The kind of fraud that Trump ludicrously alleges took place on the basis of bits and pieces of information and lies mashed together would likely require the cooperation of thousands of people across the country. Problematically, these largely fact-less rantings aren’t, of course, the work of some random person on the internet — they’re the work of the president of the United States. Trump is casting his conspiratorial fight against the election results in disturbingly grandiose terms, as if he’s leading some kind of cult.
Check out more posts from Trump below, including one in which he simply states “RIGGED ELECTION!” and that’s it:
Germany has consistently been used by my obnoxious critics as the country that we should follow on the way to handle the China Virus. So much for that argument. I love Germany – Vaccines on the way!!! https://t.co/hEeKIqDMQn
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
RIGGED ELECTION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
STOCK MARKETS AT NEW ALL TIME HIGHS!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
This case had nothing to do with me. Fake News (as usual!). https://t.co/CZnO4GFcco
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
No candidate has ever won both Florida and Ohio and lost. I won them both, by a lot! #SupremeCourt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
See Twitter’s response below:
