November 7, 2020

Trump Refuses to Concede—or Make Any Sense

Here’s his response to losing the election.

Trump Exit

Evan Vucci / Associated Press

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Minutes after CNN and NBC News declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election, President Trump refused to concede, issuing a statement—apparently from his golf course—asserting that “this election is far from over” and promising to fight the results in court. Biden, according to Trump, is “rushing to falsely pose as the winner” with help from his “media allies.”

Trump’s assertions that there has been any sort of cover-up of the election results in states like Pennsylvania are false, and his one big legal victory so far has been to allow election observers to stand just a little bit closer to the people counting the votes. What’s more, the vote count as of Saturday shows Biden’s margins growing in Pennsylvania. He leads by more than 30,000 votes, a number that’s expected to keep rising. The Democrat leads by more than 7,000 votes in Georgia (which is heading to a recount) and nearly two percentage points in Nevada. He still leads in Arizona, though the final result is expected to be close.

But perhaps notably (you never know with Trump), there’s one thing this statement doesn’t say—that Trump actually won. After days of bluster, he’s now talking about legal arguments rather than making any claims about the underlying math. There’s no longer any path to victory; all that’s left is denial.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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