Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We’ve hat enough of Trump
‘Secret plot’ to declare victory over Biden even before result is in Bid to scrap votes sent by mail could spark rioting on the streets
DONALD Trump has allegedly plotted to declare himself the winner of the US election before the result is even known.
Such a move would ensure the dirtiest ever fight for the White House and put the country on a footing to civil unrest – especially if his Democratic rival Joe Biden turns out to have won.
Trump is reportedly preparing to falsely claim that postal ballots counted after today’s election are evidence of election fraud.
The President has denied the reports he will prematurely declare victory but has threatened to deploy his legal team to challenge the results.
He said: “We’re going to go in the night... as soon as that election’s over, we’re going in with our lawyers.
“I think it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election.
“I think it’s a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over.”
Trump added: “I think it’s terrible that we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election.”
He has attacked Supreme Court rulings allowing states such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania to count ballots that are postmarked before election day but arrive shortly after Tuesday.
AMBUSH
Trump called it a “very dangerous decision for our country”.
He added: “You’re going to have one or two or three states, depending on how it ends up, where they’re tabulating ballots, and the rest of the world is waiting to find out. And I think there’s great danger to it, and I think a lot of fraud and misuse can take place.”
Yesterday on the final day of the campaign, Trump continued to ramp up tension as he celebrated his supporters using pick-up trucks to reportedly ambush a Biden campaign bus.
He disputed a report the FBI is probing alleged harassment of the bus as it drove through Texas. In a statement, the FBI said: “FBI San Antonio is aware of the incident and investigating.”
But Trump tweeted: “This story is FALSE.” He continued to voice support for the motorists, saying: “They did nothing wrong.” He added: “But the ANTIFA anarchists, rioters and looters, who have caused so much harm and destruction in Democrat-run cities, are being seriously looked at.”
He al so suggested he would like to have a physical fight with Biden and mocked the former Vice-president’s appearance. Trump, 74, told supporters at a rally in Opa-locka, Florida, that Biden, 77, is “a weak person”. He added: “He challenged me a year-and-a-half ago... ‘Huh, I’d like to take him behind a barn’. And I said, ‘Of all the people in the world that I could fight, that’s probably the one I’d like to most fight’.” Trump said Biden’s legs are“very thin ”, adding: “You wouldn’t have to close the fist.” He also continued to play down the
pandemic, ridiculed a Fox News host for wearing a mask at one of his rallies and said doctors are fabricating coronavirus deaths for money.
Covid has claimed the lives of more than 231,000 Americans while infecting a further 9.3 million.
Despite record numbers of new cases, the President has told voters the country is “turning the corner”.
In the early hours of yesterday while at the raucous rally in Florida, he also slammed America’s leading disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci.
As Trump addressed hundreds of his maskless supporters, they began chanting “Fire Fauci”. It came after the doctor’ s repeated criticism of the Trump administration downplaying the recent surge.
Trump told the crowd of Republican supporters: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election... I appreciate the advice.” Both candidates spent the final hours on the campaign trail hoping to attract those who remain undecided.
Trump held five rallies across battleground states. Biden, who spoke at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, focused on Pennsylvania in a bid to block the President from repeating his victory there four years ago. Yesterday Biden led Trump by 10 percentage points nationally – 53% to 43%, according to an average of national polls.
Biden’s poll lead in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin is nine points, six in Pennsylvania, five in North Carolina, four in Arizona and two in Florida.
However, in Iowa one poll suggested Trump had surged ahead in recent days with White House communications director Alyssa Far ah predicting the “silent majority” will prove polls wrong again and give the President victory.
Businesses throughout the US continued to take precautions over fears the result could spark large scale civil unrest.
Stores are being boarded up from east to west coast.
The move comes as the police and other agencies are preparing for possible protests relating to the election. At the White House, a “nonscalable” fence has been put up around the perimeter.
Voters have cast more than 94 million ballots ah ead of today, according to the US Elections Project.
The figure represents roughly 68% of the total votes counted in 2016.
It includes more than 34 million in-person votes, as well as nearly 60 million returned postal ballots. Uncertainty remains today over when the result will be called.
Usually by 4am UK time a winner is accurately predicted.
But because of expected disputes, the official result may not be known for days, possibly weeks.
Yesterday a punter staked £1million on Biden to win at odds of 8/15 – the biggest bet of the election on Betfair Exchange. The bet would return £1,540,000 if successful.
Sam Rosbottom, of Betfair, said: “The 2016 US election’s record for being the biggest single betting event of all time was broken by this year’s contest last week and the £271million bet on the 2020 election means it remains on course to hit £400million.”
I think it’s terrible that we can’t know the results on the night TRUMP ON ALLOWING ‘LATE’ POSTAL VOTES TO BE INCLUDED
MANY in Downing Street felt that they had found a friend in Donald Trump four years ago.
The new US leader was an ardent Brexit fan with a dislike of Europe, a billionaire with businesses in the UK – and it was hoped he would cement an even stronger “special relationship”.
Such a partnership would have softened some of the UK’S economic chaos caused by Brexit, as Trump wanted bilateral free-trade deals.
But since his rise to power, Britain has endured a chaotic relationship with him and with America as a result.
He openly attacked Theresa May when she was PM, accused British spooks of spying on him, claimed that this country had “no-go areas” and retweeted three inflammatory videos from a UK far-right group.
But while he is a great admirer of Mrs May’s successor Boris Johnson, his US election rival certainly is not.
Joe Biden has described the Prime Minister as “a physical and emotional clone” of Trump. He opposed Brexit and, due to his Irish heritage, has expressed concern about its potential impact on Ireland’s economy and Northern Ireland’s security.
As America today elects its next leader, we look at what four more years of Trump or a new Biden administration could mean for Britain.