Trump is still saying that he has won the election if the “legal” votes are counted and the “illegal” votes are not counted. Just what the hell makes a vote “legal” or “illegal” in Trump’s mind? The race of the voter, that’s what. A white voter probably cast a “legal” vote, a black voter almost certainly cast an “illegal” vote.
Although Trump has enough sense not to say that in those words, it’s clear enough that that's what he thinks. Niara Savage for the Atlanta Black Star:
On Thursday evening, ... 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.”
…
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.
Because it is indeed racist. Why doesn’t Trump complain about cities like Burlington, Vermont, that also favored Joe Biden? Because they’re mostly white voters, and therefore their votes are valid in Trump's mind.
Trump lied plenty in his speech last night. According to Daniel Bale for CNN, it was the most dishonest speech of his whole time in the White House. I’m going to focus on remarks about Detroit, Philadelphia:
Detroit and Philadelphia
Trump claimed, "Detroit and Philadelphia, known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily, cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race, a very important presidential race."
Facts First: There was no basis for Trump's suggestion that Detroit and Philadelphia had done anything wrong in this election, much less that they were "engineering the outcome." Their local counties were simply counting votes, like every other local county.
Known by whom to be “two of the most corrupt”? They're known by racists to have large populations of people of races they consider to be inferior.
But, as there is still some semblance of justice in this country, despite Republican court-packing, Trump can’t sign laws explicitly disenfranchising black voters, like Hitler did with Jewish voters in Nazi Germany.
So instead Trump points to other things as supposed evidence of election fraud.
Election observers in Detroit
Trump claimed, "Our campaign has been denied access to observe any counting in Detroit."
Facts First:
This is false. CNN reporter Annie Grayer said she has observed representatives of the Trump campaign roaming for three days at the TFC Center, where the counting of Detroit's mail ballots is taking place. And on Monday, the first day of the counting of these ballots, Grayer took a photo of Republican poll challengers checking in at the facility.
Detroit's corporation counsel (principal attorney), Lawrence Garcia, said there were approximately 225 Republican poll challengers in the facility on Wednesday, along with 256 Democrats and 76 independents, Grayer
reported.
Grayer said she has seen two people get kicked out, one a Republican who refused to wear a mask over their nose and one of undetermined affiliation for causing a disturbance while wearing a Halloween mask. But that's not the same as no Trump observers being allowed at all.
Covered windows
Trump claimed, "One major hub for counting ballots in Detroit covered up the windows again with large pieces of cardboard and so they wanted to protect and block the counting area. They didn't want anybody seeing the counting, though these were observers, legal observers that were supposed to be there."
Facts First: This is misleading: Republican poll challengers were already inside the facility in Detroit when some windows were covered on Wednesday after additional Republicans arrived on scene.
Garcia said in a statement: "Some — but not all — windows were covered, because poll workers seated just inside those windows expressed concerns about people outside the center photographing and filming them and their work. Only the media is allowed to take pictures inside the counting place, and people outside the center were not listening to requests to stop filming poll workers and their paperwork. Hundreds of challengers from both parties were inside the central counting board all afternoon and all evening; dozens of reporters were in the room too. At all times, people outside the center could see in through windows that were further away from counting board work spaces."
Trump's supporters are emboldened by his racism. The protesters at TCF Center (formerly Cobo Center) in Detroit are supposedly concerned about protecting the integrity of the vote. Some of them have signs that say that votes cast after Election Day are illegal, which you can’t really argue with.
But some of them also have signs that say “build the wall.” They don’t actually care about the wall being built or that Trump has failed to get it built. “Build the wall” is a convenient shorthand for “we hate people who are not white.” Kind of like “Arbeit macht frei.”
The Republican observers have not found any actual evidence of election fraud. But that hasn't stopped them from inventing evidence, like the WXYZ cameraman who was supposedly sneaking invalid ballots in his equipment cart. The TV station should demand an apology. Not that they’ll get it.
By the way, Republican senate hopeful John James is black. What does he think about Trump and the Republicans trying to disenfranchise black voters in Detroit? Does James really want to be the junior senator from Michigan even with Detroit voters rejecting him? Can Detroit voters trust someone who regard their votes as invalid?
Well, James hasn’t conceded to Senator Gary Peters (D-Michigan). That’s not a constitutional requirement, of course. But it would show good sportsmanship on James’s part. They teach that at West Point, I presume, along with little things like honor and honesty. James has forgotten those lessons.
Senator James would be the self-serving, do-nothing legislator that he falsely accuses Peters of being. Detroit voters want Joe Biden to become president and Gary Peters to remain a senator. Their votes deserve to be counted as much as those of anyone else in Michigan.