On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump gave a speech from the White House, during which he accused multiple cities of rigging the election, and doubled-down on a false narrative about illegal votes being counted as ballots are totaled in several key states.
“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.”
As Trump continued to tout his “massive victories” in multiple states, and complain about “illegal votes,” MSNBC cut away from the speech, and anchor Brian Williams quickly rebuked his statements.
“Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,” he said. “There are no illegal votes that we know of. There has no been no Trump victory that we know of.”
Other media outlets like CNN and Fox continued to carry the speech, which showed the president allege that votes in favor of him were “whittled away in secret,” as mail-in voting “destroyed our system.”
“It’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided,” he said.
In particular, Trump took aim at Philadelphia and Detroit, calling the cities “two of the most corrupt political places” in the country. He said the cities can’t be responsible for “engineering the outcome of the presidential race.”
In Philadelphia, just over 80 percent of votes have been cast for Joe Biden, while less than 19 percent have been in favor of Trump.
In Detroit, Biden has won more than 90 percent of the vote.
“They’re trying to steal the election; they’re trying to rig the election,” Trump said.
After the speech, Trump was accused of singling-out Black cities as politically corrupt places.
“Why is he talking about Detroit? Why is he talking about Philadelphia? It’s not subtle, it’s race,” said David Axelrod, former advisor for president Barack Obama.
CNN’s Van Jones raised similar questions. “Why are you singling out these two Black cities? It feels racial,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Trump Campaign sued to stop vote counting in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan. He also requested a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden is projected to win, and announced on Thursday that his campaign would be suing Nevada, where Biden holds a narrow lead.
“Stop the count” became a rallying cry for Trump supporters in Michigan, where Biden is projected to win, but in Arizona demonstrators chanted, “count the vote.”
Biden is also projected to win Arizona, but the Trump Campaign has expressed confidence that Trump can still prevail in the state.
Biden said Thursday that he has “no doubt” he will be declared the winner of the election.
