Trump shares video showing ballots being collected AFTER Election Day despite it being legal and says he received '73 million legal votes' and 'easily won' Pennsylvania and Michigan
President Donald Trump doubled down on his allegation of voter fraud Wednesday night and claimed he had now received '73 million legal votes'.
Trump retweeted several claims that voters in Pennsylvania were being sent blank ballots and that polling stations in the state had a list of Republican poll watchers who were deemed 'no entry'.
The president also doubled down on his claims he won Pennsylvania and Michigan, shortly after sharing a video showing ballots being collected after Election Day in California.
The president tweeted Wednesday night that he had 'easily won both states', saying 'hundreds of thousands of votes' should be thrown out because GOP poll watchers were prevented from observing ballot counting.
'Nobody wants to report that Pennsylvania and Michigan didn’t allow our Poll Watchers and/or Vote Observers to Watch or Observe,' he wrote.
'This is responsible for hundreds of thousands of votes that should not be allowed to count. Therefore, I easily win both states. Report the News!'
Both states flipped blue for Joe Biden last week after being red in 2016. For Pennsylvania, 2016 was the first time since 1948 the state had turned red.
The president tweeted and retweeted numerous claims of voter fraud on Wednesday night as he continued to target Pennsylvania and Michigan with several unfounded allegations
Trump went even further with his claims of voter fraud Wednesday tweeting that he had won 73million 'legal votes' and retweeting other claims from his son, Eric
Donald Trump has doubled down on his claims he won Pennsylvania and Michigan
Eric Trump an unverified picture of the Philadelphia counting center 'No Entry' list that allegedly included senior Trump campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski
Later in the night, Trump retweeted the Philadelphia branch of the GOP as they claimed that voters in Allentown were receiving blank ballots and called for anyone who had received the same to get in touch.
Quite why they would receive ballots now and why that would show fraud was unclear.
He also retweeted his son Eric with a post of an unverified picture of the Philadelphia counting center 'No Entry' list that allegedly included senior Trump campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski.
Pennsylvania was called for Biden on Saturday and its 20 electoral college votes pushed him over the 270 college vote margin to victory.
His lead in the state has grown further since then, with over 50,000 more votes than Trump while the votes left to be counted are in Philadelphia and Allegheny County - both of which are also expected to lean further toward Biden.
As of Wednesday, 99 percent of votes had been reported in the state and Biden has the lead by 51,969 votes or a .8 percent margin. The margin for a losing candidate to request a recount is .5 percent.
President Trump went on a retweeting rampage on Wednesday night as he continued to push his claims of voter fraud, focusing on Pennsylvania for much of the day
He also mentioned Dominion Voting Systems which became the target of fraud allegations last week after a clerk's error in a small, Republican-leaning Michigan county
He also retweeted claims that voters in Pennsylvania received blank ballots
Michigan, which was called for Biden on November 4, has also reported 99 percent of votes, with Biden leading by 146,123 votes or a 2.7 percent margin.
On Wednesday night, Trump tweeted about a unfounded claim that Dominion Voting Systems had led to voting problems in the state.
'It attempted to alter our election and got caught?' Trump wrote in answer to question about the company from another Twitter user.
The company, which makes software that local governments around the nation use to help run their elections, became the center of unfounded claims of fraud last week after a clerk's error in a small, Republican-leaning Michigan county.
The error was jumped on as an example of vote-rigging because it wrongly favored Joe Biden before being fixed.
A week later, that misinterpreted mistake snowballed into a deluge of false claims that Democrats have deep ties to Dominion Voting Systems, which the Associated Press has asserted are untrue.
Trump has filed lawsuits to stop both Michigan and Pennsylvania certifying their election results later this month amid a string of legal challenges and unfounded claims of voter fraud.
In Pennsylvania, his campaign has filed at least 15 legal challenges, including allegations poll watchers weren't allowed close enough to watch vote counting in Philadelphia.
A USPS worker cited in one of the suits claimed postal workers discussed back-dating mail-in ballots and forwarding them to election officials.
However he then recanted his statement after being questioned by the Post Office Inspector General's Office investigators, according to House Oversight Democrats Tuesday.
In Michigan, the Trump campaign filed a federal suit late Tuesday seeking to stop the state from certifying its vote count until allegations of irregularities in vote counting are addressed.
'Is this what our country has come to?' President Donald Trump questioned as he tweeted a video Wednesday of a woman in California quizzing workers collecting mail-in ballots at a drop box days after Election Day
The woman asked why they were collecting the ballots even though the deep blue state had already 'called' the election for Joe Biden – state officials, however, say they are still tabulating ballots
Workers were emptying a full box of ballots into smaller bags and told the woman in the video they are taking it to the counting center
California was one of the states that sent out mail-in ballots to all 20 million plus registered voters to accommodate for those concerned about voting in person due to the coroanvirus pandemic
Trump's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany presented 234 pages of statements from the suit on Fox News Tuesday.
The statements include complaints about military ballots going for Biden despite one GOP poll watcher saying he thought those who serve are 'conservative.'
The same poll-watcher also said under oath he believed independent poll watchers were in fact left-wing radicals because they said they wanted to work in Brooklyn or expressed sympathy with protesters who declared an autonomous zone in Seattle.
The president's latest attack on Michigan and Pennsylvania came hours after he tweeted out a video of a woman in California questioning workers emptying a mail-in ballot box, as she inquired why the deep blue state 'already called' the winner there if they were still collecting ballots.
'You are looking at BALLOTS! Is this what our Country has come to?' Trump posted to his Twitter.
In the video posted along with the tweet, a woman is filming two men emptying a full mail-in ballot box and asking them questions.
'Are those ballots,' the woman asked, to which one of the men replied, 'Yeah.'
'I thought they collected them all, I just want to document,' she said in explaining why she was filming and asking them questions.
Trump and his aides and allies have encouraged his supporters to document and provide proof of potential voter fraud and irregularities – especially in terms of mail-in ballots.
The president insists Democrats are using them as a way to 'steal' the election for Joe Biden.
L.A. County officials debunked claims that his video, which has circulated on social media over the past few days, shows that people in California were able to cast votes ‘after Election Day.’
California, which has not voted for a Republican president since 1988, is deeply blue and known for being extremely slow when counting ballots. As of Wednesday evening, 92 per cent of the vote was counted in the state
They say the video shows ballots being collected on November 4, the day after Election Day, but were deposited by voters on or before November 3.
The ballots are therefore valid and will be processed and counted per usual.
California is a blue state that has not swung for a Republican president since 1988.
'But how come they already called the state?' the woman asked.
'Because these are mail-in ballots,' the confused worker responded as he continued to empty the box and put the ballots into bags.
'Are there a ton in there?' she asked.
'Yeah,' he responded.
Biden easily won California, as he is ahead of Trump by around 5 million votes with 92 per cent reports – and will likely broaden his lead as ballots continue to filter in.
California is notoriously slow with counting ballots.
'In California, we work to ensure every ballot is counted properly and every ballot is accounted for,' California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a news release last week when there were still around 4.5 million ballots remaining to be counted.
California was one of the states that opted to send out mail-in ballots to every single registered voter in order to accommodate for the coronavirus pandemic, which left many uncomfortable with voting in-person this year.
Biden is ahead of Trump by around 5 million votes in California and over the weekend became the projected winner as he passed the 270 Electoral College vote threshold to become the next president
As of Wednesday, 15.7 million ballots were counted – still leaving more than 5 million ballots up in the air.
Over the weekend, most major media outlets – including the Associated Press – called the election for Biden and the former vice president declared victory and began setting up his transition team, establishing a coronavirus task force and announcing Cabinet picks.
Trump, however, has still not conceded, claiming the election was rigged, fraudulent and stolen and launched several lawsuits in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
His team maintains that Democrats cheated by accepting ballots after Election Day and continuing to count mail-in ballots that were postmarked no later than November 3.
Trump supporters have protested outside tabulation centers demanded they 'stop the count' and 'stop the steal.'
The president was leading in some battleground states and Election Day votes began to filter in, but as many states continued counting mail-in ballots, Biden pulled ahead in a few that cost Trump the race – like Georgia and Wisconsin.
In the video Trump posted, the workers asked the woman to back away a few times, noting that she was not standing six feet away and lamenting she was not wearing a face covering.
No comments