Trump lashes out against ballots while he’s down for the count
PHILADELPHIA — “STOP THE COUNT!”
There’s a presidential election statement for you, issued Thursday by Donald Trump in his favoured form of presidential address, a tweet, shortly after 9 a.m.
His supporters chanted the same thing in front of the Convention Center in Philadelphia on Thursday evening as ballots were being counted inside. Among the waving Trump flags, a man in boxers wearing a Biden mask was holding a sign reading, “Did I win yet?”
Awoman with a megaphone chanted, “Count all legal votes,” and a man off to t the side with another megaphone was yelling a homophobic slur and saying, “You should be ashamed of yourselves. You can’t steal this election.”
Kyle Terry said he was there to show he still supported Trump. “We do not wwant a fake election. We don’t want it to be a stolen election,” Terry said. “All of a sudden, ballots are coming out of nowhere. What do you think’s gonna happen?”
Across the street, a competing — and mmuch larger — rally was underway un- der banners reading “Count every vote.”
“Look to your left. Look to your right. You are on the right side of history!” someone with a loudspeaker shouted, and the crowd chanted, “I believe that we will win!”
If by “we” they meant Joe Biden, Thursday’s results as more ballots were counted made it look more and more likely. Even as Biden’s lead in Arizona narrowed, Trump’s leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania were rapidly disappearing.
Many experts thought that if the remaining, mostly mail-in ballots showed a similar trajectory to those of the past day, then Trump was likely to lose.
But as he had been since early in the morning after a long election night, Trump continued to rail against the counting of ballots that could see him lose.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said at a White House press conference shortly before 7 p.m. “They want to find out how many votes they need and then they find them,” he said. Trump listed a barrage of allegations and claims of his own victories. CNN fact checker Daniel Dale tweeted it was the most dishonest speech he had ever seen the president give.
“They’re finding ballots all of a sudden. It’s amazing how all those mail-in ballots are so onesided.”
It becomes less amazing a fact when you realize Trump spent months on the campaign trail saying mail-in ballots were a huge fraud, and so his supporters were reluctant to use them. Based on polling, it was widely predicted mail-in ballots would heavily favour Biden, and inperson votes favour Trump. Which is what’s happening.
The demonstrations in Philadelphia were not the only ones — groups of Trump supporters gathered at ge ballot-counting of the election locations in Michigan, Gerogia, and Nevada. The Nevada official results said at a press conference that he himself was under police protection and he feared for the safety of his workers. In Arizona, where the ongoing counting of ballots was helping Trump narrow a Biden lead — in a state Trump will need if he is to have any hope of ultimately winning — Trump supporters gathered and chanted “count those votes.”
The directly contradictory messages reflected the scattershot strategy of the Trump campaign as it refused to acknowledge the possibility of a fair loss. Trump’s campaign continued to file more lawsuits, even as ones it had filed in Georgia dismissed by judges.
But Trump, at his press conference, indicated the legal efff forts would continue — and he would be unlikely to concede no matter what the vote counts say. “As you know I’ve claimed certain states, and (Biden is) claiming states. I think ultimately there’s going to be a lot of litigation,” he said. He suggested it would wind up in the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the day, one of his campaign legal advisers seemed to suggest his personal appointments to that court might lend him some personal loyalty at the Supreme Court. “We’re waiting for the United
States Supreme Court — of which the President has nominated three justices — to step in and do something. And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through and pick it up,” Harmeet Dhillon said on a Fox News program.
Others among the president’s influential media supporters suggested legislators in Republican states might overrule the results and appoint Trump-loyal
electoral college slates in defiaa host ance of voters. A Fox News suggested the Justice Department should be taking action to shut down vote counts.
But the counting went on, and the U.S. still did not know who he winner of the election would be by Thursday evening.
In the streets of Philadelphia, they were chanting, and dancing, in the streets. The song selections may have helped sum up the mood. On the Trump side, they shook their hips and punched the air as the Rocky fight theme “Eye of the Tiger” blasted. On the Biden side, it was Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration.” It’s likely Biden’s supporters will know if they have something to celebrate before the weekend. But President Trump has indicated to his supporters he intends to fight on for a lot longer than that.