Trump continues to dispute the legitimacy of a Biden presidency. What happened?
Summary
As Biden addressed the nation last night in a victory speech, Trump questioned the legitimacy of his loss on Twitter.
- On Twitter last night, Trump shared a number of posts claiming that he was the true winner of the presidential election.
- At 10:36 AM, shortly before the Biden win was projected by media outlets, President Trump tweeted, “WE WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”
- Around 5 pm, hours after the race had been called in favor of Biden, he shared a number of conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the vote counts. Specifically, the President claimed that observers were not allowed in the vote counting rooms as required by law, and that some of the mail-in ballots counted in favor of Biden were illegal.
- He pointed out that he received “71,000,000 legal votes…the most EVER for a sitting president,” implying that some of Biden’s winning votes were cast illegally. According to the Associated Press, Trump received 70,806,515 popular votes and Biden received 75,205,552. These numbers are higher than other elections in history, likely due to the high voter turnout this year.
- This morning, Trump called on the Supreme Court to decide whether or not the vote counts were legitimate, and said that the election was stolen by Democrats.
- The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit in Arizona regarding the legitimacy of its rejected ballots, and apparently plans to file lawsuits in more states before conceding the election loss.
- Per Twitter’s policies, several of the Tweets which contained misleading or unfounded claims about the legitimacy of the election were flagged by Twitter with a disclaimer at the bottom. The Hollywood Reporter claims that Twitter will now cease this practice of flagging inaccurate information since the election has been officially called.
- Mostly ignores Trump’s reactionary posts to the outcome of the election, thereby not acknowledging claims that Biden won illegitimately. The New York Times reports that Trump’s own aides have begun to resign and crumble as it has become clear that the Biden win is legitimate, while Israeli news site Haaretz says it’s time to accept the outcome of the election and “stop persecuting the pollsters.”
- Celebrates the victory. The Verge writes that “the timeline is restored” now that Trump has been defeated; Business Insider writes about the parts of Trump’s legacy which will remain in our memories during the Biden administration.
- Looks to the future. CNN Opinion and The Guardian both write about all of the things Trump could try to push through before he leaves office. The Atlantic and USA Today report that the presidential transition will likely be ugly.
- Has generally not conceded the election loss. In an opinion piece for Fox News, Newt Gingrich writes that Trump should keep fighting and asking questions about every vote, since we still don’t know the true outcome of the election yet. National Review picks apart language in a CNN article which suggests that Biden’s election win is not a done deal.
- Highlights concerns with the electoral process. The American Spectator says that Republicans have “every right” to be suspicious of Biden’s election win in Pennsylvania. Daily Caller and Daily Wire both report on the legitimate legal grounds upon which Trump can, should, and will challenge the outcome of the race.
- Targets Biden. The Daily Mail highlights a moment in which Biden misspoke in his first speech as president-elect, seemingly in a continuing effort to undermine his competency.
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© Evelyn Torsher, 2020
