President Trump is trying to blame his lagging lead on a nonexistent conspiracy.
As votes continued to be counted on Wednesday morning, Rust Belt states started to tip in Democratic nominee Joe Biden's favor — something that was expected to happen as absentee ballots were counted after in-person votes. But Trump tweeted that "surprise ballot dumps" were actually to blame for Biden's surge, receiving a flag from Twitter for its misleading content.
Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
Surprise ballot dumps simply aren't a thing. Large numbers of ballots registering at once are the result of ballots being counted, as democracy demands. Further debunking Trump's claim is the fact that mail-in votes, especially in vital swing states, were projected to lean toward Biden, in part because Trump encouraged his supporters to vote in person.
Many states only started tabulating those mountains of absentee ballots on Tuesday, leading to a delay in reporting full results and the outcomes of some states as a whole. If Trump has a problem with that delay, he should take it up with Republican legislatures that rejected efforts to start tabulating results earlier.
Yes. Shout this from the rooftops. If you've got a beef w/ slow counts, take it up w/ Republican lawmakers in these states. We easily could've had full results by now. https://t.co/IiWo6Op2vu
— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) November 4, 2020
Biden's camp meanwhile rejected Trump's efforts to cut off the ballot count, but reminded the president it wouldn't go well for him if that happened.
Jen O'Malley Dillon: "Let's be extremely clear about something: If Donald Trump got his wish, and we stopped counting ballots right now, Vice President Joe Biden would be the next President of the United States."
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) November 4, 2020