Trump predicted the Democrats were going to RIG&STEAL the election – before voting began! Was he wrong? Now is the time to prove he was right – before he does any more damage to our Nation.
The Democrats, Biden, and Harris, made a huge mistake by not setting up a Political Court in the media that would prove Trump PLANNED to not have a peaceful transfer of power – back in September 25, 2020. Did the Proud Boys, and other people Trump just let out of jail – know of Trump’s false claims? Did they make plans – before Trump lost> If so – this is conspiracy! For Trump to let his co-conspirators out of prison, is to once again FORFIET his opportunity to prove to ALL AMERICANS he was a VICTIM of a conspiracy to deprive him of another term. Indeed, he is where he has always been on this grave matter….in the street with violent thugs and insurrectionists! How can THESE LIARS claim they are the finest representatives of the White Race – IS THE BIG QUESTION! They know they lied, yet they walk around with their chests stuck out and the gooey trigger finger – encouraged!
I descend from proud Germans who came to America and helped free the slaves wearing the Union Blue. They found Turnverein Halls across America, Five years ago I suggested Kamala Harris found a drug-free marching group, modeled after the Prussian march that is still performed in German. In the video below are Native Americans in the Chilean Army. My German ancestors hasda colony in Chile
On this day, January 22, I John Presco announce I am a candidate for the Mayor of Oakland. I am asking Loyal Americans to help me move to Oakland so I can create a Protective Sanctuary at the Claremont Hotel that should be purchased by the Sons Of The Oaken Liberty.
For twenty years it has been my olan to fught fire – with fire! As Rose heads home to terrorize his family, somemore, he will see an all black marching band coming down Broadway in Oakland.
I suspect Trump wants to reward his Proud As Hell Boys by giving them Greenland, or Panama! What does the army of Denmark and Panama look like.
Above is the light that was cast on the painting of the Pages saving our Electoral Vote from The Shit Makers who defiled our Capitol.
It is my desire to live at the Claremont where once a week I render a magnificent work of art – while giving outstanding Biblical lessons! A great prophet is coming home to the land he was born!
John Presco
Prophet of…The New Radio Church of God
Trump’s Repeated False Attacks on Mail-In Ballots
By Eugene Kiely and Rem Rieder
Posted on September 25, 2020
In the past 48 hours, President Donald Trump repeatedly has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, claiming that mail-in voting is a “disaster” and “out of control” and suggesting without evidence that Democrats are going to steal the election.
The president repeatedly sows doubt about mail-in voting, echoing what intelligence officials have said is a Russian strategy to undermine public trust in the election.
At a Sept. 23 press briefing, the president said “we’re going to have to see what happens,” when he was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “Get rid of the ballots,” he said, and there would be a “very peaceful … continuation” of power.
“The ballots are out of control,” he said of mail-in ballots. “You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.” He doubled down the next day, saying mail-in ballots are “a whole big scam” when asked if he would only accept the election results if he wins.
“We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be,” he told reporters on Sept. 24. “I don’t know that it can be with this whole situation — unsolicited ballots. They’re unsolicited; millions being sent to everybody. And we’ll see.”
We have been tracking the president’s remarks about mail-in voting. In late July, we wrote a story — “The President’s Trumped-Up Claims of Voter Fraud” — recapping his numerous false, misleading and unsupported claims to date about mail-in ballots. At the time, Trump had suggested the 2020 election should be postponed, claiming mail-in voting this year will result in the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.”
Since then, the president has ramped up his attacks on mail-in voting on a near-daily basis. His attacks come despite a U.S. intelligence bulletin issued to law enforcement agencies on Sept. 3 warning that Russia wants “to undermine public trust in the electoral process” by “amplifying criticisms of vote-by-mail,” as first reported by ABC News.
At a Sept. 17 hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that “the steady drumbeat of misinformation … will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in the validity of their vote.”
Here we recap the many stories we have done this year on the president’s false, misleading and unsupported statements about the potential for voter fraud.
We also reviewed his statements about mail-in ballots this month and found he has been repeatedly spreading misinformation in particular about foreign governments making up “counterfeit ballots” and Democrats sending out “unsolicited ballots” to rig the election. He also has been repeatedly spreading false information about Nevada, saying he will “win this state easily,” if not for mail-in ballots — even though Trump lost Nevada in 2016 and is trailing in the polls there again this election.
‘Farcical’ Claims about Foreign Counterfeit Ballots
In June, we wrote about Trump’s unfounded claim that “MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES,” resulting in a “RIGGED” election.
At the time, experts told us there are numerous logistical hurdles, such as reproducing ballots in multiple jurisdictions, and security safeguards, such as bar codes and signature checks, that would prevent a foreign government from slipping large numbers of fraudulent ballots past election officials. Those safeguards make such a plan highly unlikely to result in fraudulent votes being cast, experts say, and certainly not enough to sway a presidential election.
Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and author of “The Voting Wars,” told us that the kind of massive fraud described by Trump is “farcical.”
After we wrote our story, U.S. intelligence officials in a background briefing with reporters said they have not seen any foreign attempts to counterfeit mail-in ballots.
Similarly, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said in an Aug. 26 discussion with the Center for Strategic & International Studies: “We have yet to see any activity to prevent voting or to change votes, and we continue to think it would be extraordinarily difficult for foreign adversaries to change vote tallies.”
Regardless, the president continued to repeat unfounded claims about millions of foreign-made counterfeit ballots. Using Factbase, a nonpartisan website that tracks Trump’s public comments, we found he has made at least five such claims so far in September.
The 2020 election: Trump lamented what could have happened if only the 2020 election “weren’t rigged,” then added, “But it was.” And he said later in the speech that “they rigged the election.” This is his usual lie; Trump legitimately lost a free and fair election to Joe Biden.
Trump repeats false election fraud claims during speech in Washington
Politics Jul 26, 2022 7:35 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his first return to Washington since Joe Biden ousted him from the White House, former President Donald Trump vigorously repeated the false election-fraud claims that sparked the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. In a dueling speech not far away, his former vice president, Mike Pence, implored the Republican Party to move on from Trump’s defeat.
The separate appearances marked an intensifying rivalry between the onetime partners as both eye potential presidential runs. And they put on clear display the party divisions between Trump loyalists who refuse to accept the results of the 2020 and other Republicans who believe the party should instead focus on the future.
Federal and state election officials from both parties and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the 2020 election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges he appointed.
But Trump continued to deny his loss as he made his first appearance in the nation’s capital since Jan. 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn into office despite Trump’s frantic efforts to remain in power.
WATCH: Republican divide widens as Trump, Pence take divergent paths
“It was a catastrophe that election,” Trump declared about a mile from the White House he once called home. He addressed a summit organized by a group of former White House officials and Cabinet members who have been crafting an agenda for a possible second Trump administration.
In a nod to a 2024 presidential campaign that he’s increasingly teasing, Trump said “we may just have to do it again.”
Pence, once Trump’s loyal vice president, spoke Tuesday morning at a separate conference where he outlined his own “Freedom Agenda” and made his case that conservatives should stop looking backward.
“Some people may choose to focus on the past, but elections are about the future,” Pence said in an address to Young America’s Foundation, a student conservative group. “I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America. We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road in front of us because what’s at stake is the very survival of our way of life.”
Trump, too, said America’s survival was at stake. In a speech billed as focused on public safety, he said the country was in imminent danger from crime. Among his proposals, he called for executing drug dealers, sending the homeless to tent cities on the outskirts of towns and expanding his Southwest border wall.
Biden joined in — on Twitter — dismissing Trump’s claim to have been a law-and-order president.
Referring to the Capitol riot, he tweeted, “I don’t think inciting a mob that attacks a police officer is ‘respect for the law.’ You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop – or pro-democracy, or pro-American.”
Trump, in his remarks, spent plenty of time airing his usual grievances.
“If I renounced my beliefs, if I agreed to stay silent, if I stayed home and just took it easy, the persecution of Donald Trump would stop immediately,” he said. “But that’s not what I will do.”
The dueling appearances came as Trump’s potential rivals have been increasingly brazen in their wiliness to directly criticize the man who remains a dominating force in the Republican Party. The former White House partners also campaigned for rival candidates in Arizona on Friday. And their Tuesday speeches came amid news that Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Short was at the Capitol that day as Pence fled an angry mob of rioters who called for his hanging after Trump wrongly insisted Pence had the power to overturn the election results.
Pence has repeatedly defended his actions that day, even as his decision to stand up to his boss turned large swaths of Trump’s loyal base against him. Polls show that Trump remains, by far, the top choice of GOP primary voters, with Pence far behind.
Hearing: Trump told Justice Dept. to call election ‘corrupt’
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Steven Engel, former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, from left, Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, and Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, are sworn in to testify as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Read More
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This exhibit from video released by the House Select Committee, shows handwritten notes by Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, displayed at a hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, June 23, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (House Select Committee via AP)Read More
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Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, left, and Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, arrive as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Read More
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Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., arrives as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, left, and Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, arrive as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Read More
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Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., arrive as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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An image of former President Donald Trump is displayed as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. On June 23, the Jan. 6 committee will hear from former Justice Department officials who faced down a relentless pressure campaign from Donald Trump over the presidential election results. (Al Drago/Pool Photo via AP)Read More
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Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., center, speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., left, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., right, listen. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)Read More
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A tweet from former President Donald Trump is displayed as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. From left, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Soumya Dayananda, committee investigative staff counsel, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)Read More
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Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wipes his eye as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
By ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRIPublished 7:30 PM PST, June 23, 2022Share
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power and relenting only when warned in the Oval Office of mass resignations, according to testimony Thursday to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Three Trump-era Justice Department officials recounted persistent badgering from the president, including day after day of directives to chase baseless allegations that the election won by Democrat Joe Biden had been stolen. They said they swept aside each demand from Trump because there was no evidence of widespread fraud, then banded together when the president weighed whether to replace the department’s top lawyer with a lower-level official eager to help undo the results.
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All the while, Republican loyalists in Congress trumpeted the president’s claims — and several later sought pardons from the White House after the effort failed and the Capitol was breached in a day of violence, the committee revealed Thursday.
The hearing, the fifth by the panel probing the assault on the Capitol, made clear that Trump’s sweeping pressure campaign targeted not only statewide election officials but also his own executive branch agencies. The witnesses solemnly described the constant contact from the president as an extraordinary breach of protocol, especially since the Justice Department has long cherished its independence from the White House and looked to steer clear of partisan considerations in investigative decisions.
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“When you damage our fundamental institutions, it’s not easy to repair them,” said Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general in the final days of the Trump administration. “So I thought this was a really important issue, to try to make sure that the Justice Department was able to stay on the right course.”
The hearing focused on a memorably tumultuous time at the department after the December 2020 departure of Attorney General William Barr, who drew Trump’s ire with his public proclamation that there was no evidence of fraud that could have changed the election results.
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He was replaced by his top deputy, Rosen, who said that for a roughly two-week period after taking the job, he either met with or was called by Trump virtually every day. The common theme, he said, was “dissatisfaction that the Justice Department, in his view, had not done enough to investigate election fraud.”
Trump presented the department with an “arsenal of allegations,” none of them true, said Richard Donoghue, another top official who testified Thursday. Even so, Trump prodded the department at various points to seize voting machines, to appoint a special counsel to probe fraud claims and to simply declare the election corrupt.
The department did none of those things.
“For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think would have had grave consequences for the country. It may very well have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis,” Donoghue said.
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The testimony showed that Trump did, however, find a willing ally inside the department in the form of an environmental enforcement lawyer who’d become the leader of the agency’s civil division.
The attorney, Jeffrey Clark, had been introduced to Trump by a Republican congressman and postured himself as an eager advocate for election fraud claims. In a contentious Oval Office meeting on the night of Jan. 3, 2021, just three days before the insurrection, Trump even toyed with replacing Rosen with Clark but backed down amid warnings of mass resignations.
Clark’s name was referenced often Thursday, with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican and committee member, deriding him as a lawyer whose sole qualification was his fealty to Trump and his willingness to do whatever the president wanted, “including overthrowing a free and fair democratic election.”
A lawyer for Clark did not return messages seeking comment.
Barely an hour before the hearing began, it was revealed that federal agents on Wednesday had searched Clark’s Virginia home, according to a person familiar with the matter. It was not clear what agents were seeking.
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The latest hearing centered less on the violence at the Capitol than on the legal push by Trump to undo the election results, as the panel makes the case that the defeated president’s “big lie” over the election led to the insurrection. That included specific asks by Trump but also more general ones.
In one phone conversation, according to handwritten notes taken by Donoghue and highlighted at Thursday’s hearing, Trump directed Rosen to “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen.”
Around that time, Trump was connected by a Republican congressman, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, to Clark, who’d joined the department in 2018 as its chief environmental lawyer and later set about aiding efforts to challenge the election results.
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At one point, Clark presented colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results. Clark wanted the letter sent, but Justice Department superiors refused.
Clark was not among the hearing witnesses. He earlier appeared in private before the committee, though lawmakers Thursday played a videotaped deposition showing him repeatedly invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination in response to questions.
Perry’s name surfaced later in the hearing, when the committee played videotaped statements from Trump aides saying he and several other Republican members of Congress sought pardons from the president that would shield them from criminal prosecution.
Perry and fellow GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas were all involved in efforts to reject the electoral tally or submit “fake electors.” Gaetz tweeted Thursday that the hearing was a “political sideshow,” and Perry denied in a statement Thursday having ever sought a pardon.
The situation came to a head on Jan. 3, 2021, a Sunday, when Clark informed Rosen that Trump wanted to replace him with Clark as acting attorney general. Rosen, resisting the idea of being fired by a subordinate, testified that he swiftly contacted senior Justice Department officials to rally them together. He also requested a White House meeting, where he and his allies could make their case.
That night, he showed up at the White House for what would be a dramatic, hours-long meeting centered on whether Trump should proceed with plans for a radical leadership change. Clark was present, as were Donoghue and Steven Engel, a Rosen ally and senior Justice Department official who also testified Thursday.
At the start of the meeting, Rosen said, “The president turned to me and he said: ‘The one thing we know is you, Rosen, you aren’t going to do anything. You don’t even agree with the claims of election fraud, and this other guy at least might do something.’”
Rosen told Trump he was correct, and said he wouldn’t let the Justice Department do anything to overturn the election.
Donoghue made clear he’d resign if Trump fired Rosen. Trump asked Engel whether he would do the same. Engel responded that, absolutely, he would. The entire leadership team would resign, Trump was told. Hundreds of staffers would walk out too.
Donoghue also sought to dissuade Trump from believing Clark had the legal background to do what the president wanted, saying Clark had “never tried a criminal case” or conducted a criminal investigation.
“He’s telling you that he’s going to take charge of the department, 115,000 employees, including the entire FBI, and turn the place on a dime and conduct nationwide criminal investigations that will produce results in a matter of days,’” Donoghue said.
“It’s impossible,” he added, “it’s absurd, it’s not going to happen, and it’s going to fail.”
The president backed down. The night, and his Republican administration, ended with Rosen atop the Justice Department.
Fact check: Trump delivers the most dishonest speech of his presidency as Biden closes in on victory
By Daniel Dale, CNN
9 minute read
Updated 5:06 PM EST, Fri November 6, 2020
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Joe Biden pledges to unify, not divide, as president
01:07
Kamala Harris: Americans ushered in a new day
02:23
See the moment CNN called the race for Joe Biden
00:59
Van Jones: For a lot of people it’s a good day
02:07
Bash reacts to Trump speech: ‘This isn’t just dangerous. It’s nonsensical’
06:34
John King: If Trump thinks 2016 was a landslide, 2020 is as well
03:22
CNN projects Joe Biden wins Arizona
02:55
‘Chilling to hear’: Tapper reacts to Pompeo’s refusal to acknowledge Biden win
04:05
Keilar calls out GOP enablers fueling Trump’s refusal to concede
10:16
Biden says Trump’s failure to concede won’t affect transition
01:38
See what Pompeo said when asked about Biden’s victory
03:26
Erin Burnett: This is who is holding up Biden’s transition process
04:49
SE Cupp: This was always going to be problematic at Fox News
04:37
Berman asks Georgia GOP official if he’s seen any voter fraud
01:15
Hear Joe Biden’s message to Trump supporters
00:57
Kamala Harris to voters: You chose truth
01:52
Joe Biden pledges to unify, not divide, as president
01:07
Kamala Harris: Americans ushered in a new day
02:23
See the moment CNN called the race for Joe Biden
00:59
Van Jones: For a lot of people it’s a good day
02:07
Bash reacts to Trump speech: ‘This isn’t just dangerous. It’s nonsensical’
06:34
John King: If Trump thinks 2016 was a landslide, 2020 is as well
03:22
CNN projects Joe Biden wins Arizona
02:55
‘Chilling to hear’: Tapper reacts to Pompeo’s refusal to acknowledge Biden win
04:05WashingtonCNN —
President Donald Trump delivered the most dishonest speech of his presidency on Thursday evening.
I’ve watched or read the transcript of every Trump speech since late 2016. I’ve cataloged thousands and thousands of his false claims.
I have never seen him lie more thoroughly and more egregiously than he did on Thursday evening at the White House.
On the verge of what appeared to be a likely defeat by former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump emerged in the press briefing room and took a blowtorch to the presidential tradition of defending the legitimacy of the democratic process.
Aside from some valid criticism of errors by pollsters, some legitimate boasting about his performance with various demographic groups and some legitimate boasting about Republicans’ down-ballot performance, almost everything Trump said was not true.
Here’s a rundown:
Election theft?
Trump alleged that unnamed opponents of his are “trying to steal an election” and “trying to rig an election.”
Facts First: This is entirely baseless. This election is legitimate. Trump’s opponents are not trying to steal it. Election officials are simply counting legally cast votes.
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia
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Trump claimed that he “won” the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, citing his substantial early leads in the vote counts there.
Facts First: This is false. Holding a lead before all of the votes are counted is, obviously, not the same as having won – and Trump has lost Wisconsin and Michigan, according to CNN projections. At the time of his speech, he was also in trouble in Pennsylvania as votes from Democratic-leaning areas were counted, and his margin in Georgia was shrinking fast as the count continued.
CNN holds elected officials and candidates accountable by pointing out what’s true and what’s not.
Here’s a look at our recent fact checks.
Mail-in voting
Trump called mail-in voting “a corrupt system,” adding later that there is “tremendous corruption and fraud going on.”
Facts First: This is also just wrong. Fraud is exceedingly rare with mail-in voting; though it does happen on occasion, there is no basis on which to call the entire system corrupt.
The legitimacy of the count, part 1
Trump began the speech by saying, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
Facts First: This is, again, just false. Trump was on the verge of defeat because legal votes continued to be counted. There was no basis for his suggestion that “illegal votes” were being counted, certainly not that such votes were the reason he was in electoral trouble.
The legitimacy of the count, part 2
Trump claimed, “We were winning in all of the key locations by a lot, actually, and our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away. …” He added, “They want to find out how many votes they need and then they seem to be able to find them. They wait and wait and then they find them. …”
Facts First: There is no basis for Trump’s suggestion that something nefarious had caused some of his leads to shrink or that anybody was nefariously manipulating the vote counts. His leads had shrunk in some states because entirely legitimate mail-in ballots were being counted. Because many more Democrats than Republicans chose to vote by mail, the order of the counts in these states caused Trump to lose ground in the vote totals over time.
In other states like Florida, where mail-in ballots were counted earlier than in-person votes, Trump actually gained ground in the totals over time – as he has in Arizona, which remained too close to call at the time of his speech.
The legitimacy of the count, part 3
Trump claimed, “In multiple swing states, counting was halted for hours and hours on election night, with results withheld from major Democrat-run locations, only to appear later. And they certainly appeared, and they all had the name Biden on them, or just about all, I think almost all. They all had the name Biden on them, which is a little strange.”
Facts First: Trump’s innuendo is baseless. Different states counted their ballots at different speeds, but there is no basis to claim that results were suspiciously “withheld” – some counties and states always take a while to count and to report – or that there was something suspicious about Biden’s dominance in the late stages of the count in some states. Again, Biden’s gains were a result of legitimate mail-in ballots being counted.
It’s not true that “all” or “almost all” mail ballots being counted on Wednesday or Thursday were for Biden. Biden handily led Trump in these batches of ballots, but Trump was getting tens of thousands of votes from mail voters in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan, too.
The legitimacy of the count, part 4
Trump said, “It’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided.”
Facts First: There is nothing suspicious about the fact that far more Biden voters than Trump voters chose to vote by mail: Biden encouraged his supporters to do so, while Trump relentlessly disparaged mail-in voting as fraud-prone and unsafe.
Trump made some brief exceptions during the campaign, saying at one point that mail voting in Florida was safe and secure, but his dominant message to his voters was that they should vote in person.
Democrats and the count
Trump said, “There are now only a few states yet to be decided in the presidential race. The voting apparatus of those states are run in all cases by Democrats.” He later added that “the election apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats.”
Facts First: This is false. Georgia’s top elections official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, is a Republican. So is Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske of Nevada, a state where the race was also close at the time.
There is also no basis to suggest that the Democratic election officials in other states have done anything wrong. And it is local counties that actually count the votes.
Votes and Election Day?
Trump declared that “no illegal votes” should be allowed to be cast after Election Day, suggesting that such illegal voting was happening.
Facts First: Votes are not being cast after Election Day; votes are being counted after Election Day, as always. And some states accept mail ballots received after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before Election Day.
“Unsolicited” ballots
Trump claimed that states had sent out tens of millions of “unsolicited” ballots “without any verification measures whatsoever.” He was referring to states that mailed a ballot to each eligible registered voter without requiring a specific request.
Facts First: This is a familiar Trump claim, and it remains wrong. The nine states (plus Washington, DC) that sent out such ballots have various ballot security measures in place, such as signature-match requirements, to ensure the correct people are voting. It’s worth noting that one of the states that sends out “unsolicited” ballots is Republican-run Utah, which Trump is projected to carry for the second consecutive election.
Detroit and Philadelphia
Trump claimed, “Detroit and Philadelphia, known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily, cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race, a very important presidential race.”
Facts First: There was no basis for Trump’s suggestion that Detroit and Philadelphia had done anything wrong in this election, much less that they were “engineering the outcome.” Their local counties were simply counting votes, like every other local county.
Election observers in Detroit
Trump claimed, “Our campaign has been denied access to observe any counting in Detroit.”
Facts First: This is false. CNN reporter Annie Grayer said she has observed representatives of the Trump campaign roaming for three days at the TFC Center, where the counting of Detroit’s mail ballots is taking place. And on Monday, the first day of the counting of these ballots, Grayer took a photo of Republican poll challengers checking in at the facility.
Detroit’s corporation counsel (principal attorney), Lawrence Garcia, said there were approximately 225 Republican poll challengers in the facility on Wednesday, along with 256 Democrats and 76 independents, Grayer reported.
Grayer said she has seen two people get kicked out, one a Republican who refused to wear a mask over their nose and one of undetermined affiliation for causing a disturbance while wearing a Halloween mask. But that’s not the same as no Trump observers being allowed at all.
Covered windows
Trump claimed, “One major hub for counting ballots in Detroit covered up the windows again with large pieces of cardboard and so they wanted to protect and block the counting area. They didn’t want anybody seeing the counting, though these were observers, legal observers that were supposed to be there.”
Facts First: This is misleading: Republican poll challengers were already inside the facility in Detroit when some windows were covered on Wednesday after additional Republicans arrived on scene.
Garcia said in a statement: “Some – but not all – windows were covered, because poll workers seated just inside those windows expressed concerns about people outside the center photographing and filming them and their work. Only the media is allowed to take pictures inside the counting place, and people outside the center were not listening to requests to stop filming poll workers and their paperwork. Hundreds of challengers from both parties were inside the central counting board all afternoon and all evening; dozens of reporters were in the room too. At all times, people outside the center could see in through windows that were further away from counting board work spaces.”
A pipe bursting in Georgia
Trump claimed, “In Georgia, a pipe burst in a faraway location totally unrelated to the location of what was happening, and they stopped counting for four hours.”
Facts First: It’s not true that the burst-pipe issue in Atlanta happened in a location unrelated to the vote count. The pipe burst in a room at State Farm Arena that local officials said was above the processing room for Fulton County absentee ballots.
The issue did cause a four-hour delay. No ballots were damaged, officials said.
The legitimacy of polls
Trump delivered some legitimate criticism of the inaccuracy of many polls. But then he said that “the pollsters got it knowingly wrong,” saying they were attempting the “suppression” of his supporters.
Facts First: This is baseless. Trump was correct that some polls were way off, but there is no evidence that pollsters were trying to be wrong – at considerable public embarrassment to themselves.
The status of the Senate
Trump said, “We kept the Senate despite having twice as many seats to defend as Democrats.”
Facts First: It was unclear at the time whether Republicans would keep the Senate – in part because one race in Georgia was heading for a January runoff election and other Georgia race appeared likely to be going to a runoff as well. (Some additional Senate races in other states, in which Republicans held leads, had also not yet been called by media outlets.)
Rosamond Press 
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