Over a week since the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential election became clear, and incumbent President Donald trump has finally acknowledged that Democrat Joe Biden won the contest. However, he continues to allege that the results were the result of a "rigged" election.
Trump, who since Election Day has decried the fact that legal mail-in ballot votes were being counted, issued a tweet on Sunday morning that for the first time acknowledged Biden’s victory. However, in the same breath, he accused the election of being rigged, raising the issue of Republican vote-watchers not being allowed near the counting booths, the spectre of a “radical left privately owned” company that made voting machines and his usual bugbear, the fake media.
“He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!” Trump tweeted.
He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more! https://t.co/Exb3C1mAPg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
“All of the mechanical “glitches” that took place on Election Night were really THEM getting caught trying to steal votes. They succeeded plenty, however, without getting caught. Mail-in elections are a sick joke!” Trump added.
As with most of his tweets since Election Day, this post too was flagged by Twitter with the disclaimer “This claim about election fraud is disputed”.
One of the Trump administration's top electoral bodies had issued a joint statement claiming these were the most secure elections in USA history. Trump's claims about the errors made by Dominion voting machines, which Trump claims led to 2.7 million Trump votes being deleted, were directly disputed by a national coalition of officials in charge of election cybersecurity.
While Trump’s campaign have filed lawsuits in numerous states alleging election fraud, none of these suits appear to have any chance to overturning the mandate—Trump would need to overturn Biden’s victory in several states including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and others in other to get the required number of Electoral College votes. Biden has won 306 electoral votes while Trump got 232.
Fears that Trump would not cooperate with the peaceful transfer of power have been exacerbated by his protesters, who staged rallies across the US on Saturday and Sunday in what was dubbed the “million MAGA march”. At some of these rallies, protesters were attacked, sometimes on camera, with Trump blaming Antifa and “human radical left garbage” for the same.
