UPDATE: Trump posted on Twitter that he was planning formally to declare victory in four tossup states amid ongoing court challenges surrounding the extended vote-counting and suspicious inclusion of new ballots after Election Day.
We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
Original story below:
The campaign of President Donald Trump came out strong in its determination to defend its considerable vote lead in Pennsylvania as Democrats attempted to winnow away with the possibility of continuing to tabulate questionable ballots for several more days.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said that the numbers in Pennsylvania already made clear that Trump would take the state, despite the claims from Democrats that a million votes remained to be counted.
“We are declaring a victory in Pennsylvania,” Stepien said. “This is not based on gut or feel. This is based on math.”
The campaign also doubled down by sending Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to Philadelphia to lead the efforts to wage legal challenges alongside heavy-hitters Pam Bondi, Corey Lewandowski and other well known Trump allies.
En route to Philadelphia with legal team.
Massive cheating.@realDonaldTrump up by 550,000 with 75% counted.
Will not let Philly Democrat hacks steal it!
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) November 4, 2020
Amid accusations that poll workers had turned away poll watchers in Philadelphia, Giuliani noted that the ballots continuing to trickle in between now and the Friday deadline implemented by Democrat officials “could be from Mars” since there was little transparency in the process.
“Or they could be from the Democratic National Committee,” he continued. “Joe Biden could have voted 50 times—or perhaps 50,000 times.”
He said no Republicans had been permitted to properly examine the ballots.
“We have no idea if they’re signed, if they’re postmarked properly, if they’re from the same person… This is how they intend to win,” he said.
He remained incredulous about the Democrats’ insistence that they were committed to an honest and fair election as they appeared to be conducting vote fraud in plain sight.
“”Do you think we’re stupid? Do you think we’re fools?” Giuliani asked.
Democrats implemented the deadline extension despite opposition from the GOP legislature, which sued saying that bureaucrats had subverted the legislative process.
But a pair of cases went to the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the court’s liberal wing in a deadlocked 4-4 ruling that upheld the lower court.
A second case seeking an expedited review of the process determined that there was not enough time to do so before the election, effectively kicking the can down the road, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said on Fox News.
“That can may come rattling back to the Supreme Court,” Turley said.
