Trump falsely tweets that he — not Joe Biden — received the presidential election

President Donald Trump continued his quixotic combat to overturn the outcomes of the election he misplaced — by taking to Twitter to encourage supporters who consider the race was rigged and by blatantly ignoring actuality.

These efforts got here to a head late Sunday evening with a tweet that learn, “I WON THE ELECTION!”

The president, after all, did no such factor — President-elect Joe Biden received each the favored vote, by 5.5 million, and 306 electoral school votes, 36 greater than the 270 wanted to win the White Home and 74 greater than Trump. However that truth has not, and seems as if it is not going to, cease the president from falsely claiming in any other case.

Trump signaled he wouldn’t settle for the outcomes of the election earlier than it was held, as an illustration telling Fox Information’s Chris Wallace in July, that he would “should see” whether or not he believed the outcomes must be seen as legitimate. And days earlier than Election Day, Axios and others reported Trump deliberate to declare victory earlier than sufficient votes had been counted to find out a winner.

He adopted by way of on that plan, and since that point, he has labored to vary election leads to key states by way of a sequence of authorized challenges — a lot of which have been dropped or rejected attributable to a scarcity of proof of wrongdoing — and has unfold conspiracy theories about voter fraud, one thing that election officers have discovered little to no proof of.

Democrats and democracy specialists have decried this habits as corrosive, arguing that it weakens America’s system of presidency and seeds doubt in regards to the nation’s electoral course of that can linger lengthy after Trump leaves workplace. Republican lawmakers have been largely supportive of the president, saying they consider there ought to be investigations into the nonexistent voter fraud.

And, maybe lending credence to the fears of the president’s critics, a lot of Trump’s base has been energized by his rhetoric — a lot in order that a number of thousand of his supporters traveled to Washington, DC, on Saturday for a “Million MAGA March” at which they incorrectly claimed that the election is just not over and that Democrats are attempting to steal Trump’s rightful second time period from him.

Trump rewarded these supporters with a quick look Saturday morning, driving by on his method to golf; he later retweeted scenes and movies from the gathering, together with ones that incorrectly claimed the present vote totals in states like Michigan — which Biden received — are flawed.

It appears inevitable that Biden shall be put in within the White Home — once more, he received the election, states are about to certify their outcomes, and electors are on observe to solid their votes for or in opposition to him as their states dictate. And as Vox’s Andrew Prokop has defined, even Republican leaders like Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell — who has stated Trump is “100 % inside his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his authorized choices” — have prompt that after the Electoral Faculty’s votes are in, the election is settled so far as they’re involved.

“In some unspecified time in the future right here we’ll discover out lastly who was licensed in every of those states and the Electoral Faculty will decide the winner,” McConnell stated just lately.

However Trump doesn’t appear poised to comply with McConnell’s lead, and neither do his most passionate supporters, who seem to have suspicions about how the 2020 election was performed that even assurances of propriety from Trump’s personal officers can’t appear to assuage.

And that’s as a result of they’ve their belief in Trump, and he continues to falsely say that many issues have been amiss with the election.

With lies and conspiracy theories, Trump is spreading doubt within the electoral course of

The president spent a part of the weekend selling a conspiracy principle that machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Methods, an organization that additionally makes voting software program, have been altered to misinterpret ballots in an effort to guarantee a Biden victory. It’s a lie that was unfold by QAnon adherents and amplified by far-right networks which have curried favor with the president, just like the One American Information Community (OANN). It has been repeated by Trump’s private lawyer Rudy Giuliani and has been closely featured on the president’s Twitter account.

The New York Occasions notes the conspiracy principle appeared to achieve traction following Dominion machine person errors in Michigan and Georgia that led to the miscounting of some thousand ballots within the former state and delayed leads to the latter. These errors have been discovered and swiftly corrected, however that didn’t cease the president and his allies from falsely claiming that one thing sinister was taking place — within the president’s phrases, that the race was the “Most fraudulent Election in historical past!”

That the president has been so efficient in planting doubts in regards to the election led to hope amongst some observers that he would be capable of persuade his supporters that the election was over on Sunday, when he appeared to acknowledge — albeit alongside extra conspiracy theories — for the primary time that Biden received the election.

“He received as a result of the Election was Rigged,” Trump tweeted.

The disinformation in regards to the election apart, many — together with, reportedly, no less than one White Home official — took the tweet as a concession, and incoming Biden officers appeared cautiously optimistic in regards to the message, significantly given the president’s refusal to concede has held up the beginning of the official transition course of.

However Trump adopted that tweet with one other just a few hours later that made his intentions clear, writing, “I concede NOTHING!”

That tweet was prefaced by a promise that “WE WILL WIN!,” a sentiment that was disregarded shortly earlier than midnight on Monday, changed by Trump’s stronger, and factually incorrect assertion, “I WON THE ELECTION!” — one which was reiterated Monday morning:

Almost two weeks after voting concluded, Trump’s newest tweets put the president basically the place he was on election evening: denying actuality.

Early on November 4, Trump stated Democrats have been making an attempt to steal the election from him, and stated the Supreme Court docket would assist guarantee his victory. He prompt then that his authorized challenges would assist make this doable, however lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan have failed, and it seems excellent circumstances but to be heard will fail as properly.

The authorized route trying more and more doubtful, Trump is now making an attempt to steal the election by saying what occurred didn’t really occur in any respect and that election officers, voting corporations, and the media are all mendacity to the American individuals.

His assertions are in a technique futile. States are working to certify their outcomes and are scheduled to submit them to the federal authorities by December 8. The Electoral Faculty plans to vote on December 14. And Biden’s inauguration continues to be scheduled for January 20. Nothing Trump says on Twitter can cease time from progressing towards these occasions.

However what he says clearly has sway over many People, from those that marched on Washington on Saturday to those that used rhetoric just like the president’s in explaining to ABC’s This Week on Sunday why they don’t consider Biden received.

If these emotions take everlasting root, Trump’s disinformation marketing campaign received’t have been ineffectual in any respect. As a substitute, it is going to imply certainly one of his final acts as president can have been to create an alternate actuality inhabited by a lot of his supporters during which the 2020 election was illegally stolen from him and during which elections can’t be trusted to be free and honest.