Donald Trump has declared, ‘I easily win,’ even as he trails Joe Biden in the 2020 US election.
Trump spoke at the White House in Washington DC on Thursday, where he claimed that some of the votes that have so far been counted are illegal.
‘If you count the legal votes, I easily win,’ he said. ‘If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.’
He bragged that he won ‘many many critical states including decisive victories in critical states including Florida, Indiana and Iowa.’
The president also railed against mail-in ballots and said that he would be winning in many states if they had not been counted.
‘It’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided,’ he said. ‘They find them all over.’
He continued to claim that Democrats are rigging the election, even though there is nothing to back up what he is saying.
‘They are trying to steal an election,’ he said. ‘We can’t let that happen. They are trying obviously to commit fraud.’
The president went on to talk about secret counting rooms, where people had to use binoculars to see inside and make sure votes were being counted. And he also claimed a burst water pipe in Atlanta had cost him his lead over Joe Biden, despite officials there saying no ballots had been damaged.
He gave the speech inside the White House briefing room, yet took no questions from the media.
Biden has 264 electoral college votes, while Trump has 214, according to the Associated Press. In order to be elected as president, a candidate must gain 270 votes. Other totals have not included Biden’s Arizona win, putting Biden on 253 points instead.
There are many states that are still in play, including Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Election officials announced in Nevada that they may not finish counting until November 12, although they hope to have the bulk of their ballots counted by the weekend.
The Trump administration has filed lawsuits in Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania due to what he feels is improper counting of the vote.
Trump’s team has not provided any evidence to support these claims, and Twitter has censored some of his messages, calling it misleading or false information.
Georgia and Michigan have both dismissed the lawsuits, while Pennsylvania temporarily halted the vote count.
Independent international election watchers have reported no evidence of fraud.
Trump’s rhetoric seemed to inspire some of his supporters to take guns to a polling station in Arizona and demand that they stop the count of the vote.
A group of Trump supporters also demanded the same in Detroit, Michigan. In many of these states, Trump appeared to be winning, but after mail-in ballots started to be counted, the President saw his lead fade away.
Many ballots are still in the process of being counted and it is unclear exactly when the presidential race will be called.
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