Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect, but incumbent president Donald Trump is refusing to concede defeat, alleging “widespread voter fraud” fuelled by Democrats in a conspiracy to “steal” the election is behind the result of the presidential race. Instead, he’s filing lawsuits left and right, pressuring officials to back his baseless claims and using the power of government to block the transition of power from commencing.
What many political scientists and media observers deem to be a perilous attempt to overrule the will of the people and undermine democracy, the Trump administration sees otherwise: as a noble and justified fight for the rights of all American citizens to a free and fair democratic election process.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnamy declared in a press conference Monday, while aligning the Trump administration’s fight against the results of the 2020 US Elections with championing the rights of all Americans “who want to have faith and confidence” in the electoral process, “This election is not over – far from it.”
In the immediate aftermath of election day, as Biden began steadily gaining significant ground on Trump in key states and moving ever closer to the requisite 270 electoral college votes needed to win the election, the White House responded with an all-caps statement that claimed “illegal votes” were being counted to steal the election from the Trump administration.
“IF YOU COUNT THE LEGAL VOTES, I EASILY WIN THE ELECTION! IF YOU COUNT THE ILLEGAL AND LATE VOTES, THEY CAN STEAL THE ELECTION FROM US!” said the White House statement.
Although there’s scant evidence of any vote tampering, the Trump administration has issued a flurry of litigation Michigan, Wisconsin. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada to back up the unsubstantiated allegations.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued his support of Trump’s legal challenges in the wake of his defeat to president-elect Joe Biden, declaring Monday that Trump is “100 percent within his right” to pursue recounts and litigation.
US attorney general William Barr has authorised federal prosecutors to probe the “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities in the presidential election across the U.S. to determine one way or another if they do in fact exist, before the 2020 presidential election is officially certified.
Biden, when pressed for his thoughts on the Trump administrations stalling tactics on Monday, said “”I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly.” Adding tactfully that “I think it will not help the President’s legacy.”
According to SBR, president-elect Biden, who was the favourite to win the 2020 US Elections according to the odds and numerous respected polls, is on course to acquiring 306 electoral college votes and over 5 million votes more than Trump in the popular vote. The latter of which is being projected at 80 million votes approximately – by far the most votes of any presidential hopeful in American political history.
However, Trump too is on course to amassing a historic number of votes – the second-most votes in American political history at above 72 million by recent count. By these numbers, Trump has not only already surpassed the number of votes that won him the 2016 election, but he’s also surpassed the number of votes that won Hillary Clinton the popular vote count in that election.
Therefore, while Biden’s victory may have been correctly predicted, the sheer record number of votes that both candidates received in the 2020 US elections is the big reveal – one that nobody predicted. In fact, quite the opposite was expected: from a humiliating defeat that would serve as a repudiation of Trump and his brand of politics to an unambiguous referendum on the Trump administration for its perceived failings, in particular this year in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic.
If presidential elections are revealing occasions that convey the will of the people, then the 2020 US Elections revealed a nation that is, at the very least, of two minds. So, while America-wide consensus has Biden the winner of the 2020 US Elections – his margin of victory is that great, meaning any challenge by Trump or vote recount would be a moot point – his victory earns him a deeply divided country that will put his campaign slogan “to heal the soul of America” well and truly to the test.