Trump sends in Giuliani, son Eric to Pennsylvania to claim mail-in ballot 'fraud': 'They're trying to cheat'
President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, November 4, sent his younger son Eric and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani into Pennsylvania as he challenged the state Supreme Court's decision on the deadline for mail-in ballots. Guiliani and Eric, in a press conference held in Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, claimed that Trump had won the despite nearly a million mail-in ballots left to be counted.
Neither the president's lawyer nor his son offered any legal argument for why they claimed a win in the state. The pair also claimed cheating on the part of the Democratic party, however, they did not provide any evidence for alleged voter fraud. Eric said: "They're trying to cheat, they're trying to cheat," referring to Democrats. While Guiliani talked about mail-in ballots and falsely claimed that they could be fabricated.
"This is beyond anything I have ever seen before," he said. "Do you think we're stupid? Do you think we're fools? You know something, Democrats do think you're stupid," Giuliani added. "And they do think you're fools. That's why you get called 'deplorable' and 'chumps'. We're going to stick with this. We're going to win this election. We've actually won it. It's just a matter of counting the votes fairly." The president's lawyer claimed that the mail-in ballot could have come from Mars or Canada, or could have been just from one person who sent in 100,000 votes.
"We have no idea if there signed, postmarked properly, if it isn't the same person who submitted 100,000 ballots," Giuliani again claimed without providing any evidence. "This is the way they intend to win," Giuliani continued. "We're not going to let them get away with it." "This is one of the most undemocratic things I've ever seen or encountered," he added.
Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, on Wednesday had also said that he was "declaring victory in Pennsylvania” with less than 80 percent of the vote counted. His announcement was followed by a similar one from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the president's younger son Eric Trump. The premature announcement of the state victory appeared to be a coordinated attempt to disrupt the counting of legitimate ballots in the state where Trump's lead is dramatically narrowing.
The Trump campaign, in a statement, also stated that it was suing to stop vote count in Michigan and Pennsylvania and cited lack of "transparency" in the counting process as their reason. Trump’s deputy campaign manager, Justin Clark, said that the president's campaign is "suing to stop Democrat election officials from hiding the ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers." Clark added that the Trump campaign wants to "temporarily halt counting until there is meaningful transparency and Republicans can ensure all counting is done above board and by the law."
The campaign's move comes just hours after Trump falsely claimed victory in the presidential polls despite millions of votes yet to be counted. Trump addressed the nation post-Election Day, on Wednesday early morning, attacking legitimate vote-counting efforts, saying: "Millions and millions of people voted for us. A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people." Trump, who gave his speech from the White House, insisted that the states where vote tallies currently show him leading should be called in his favor despite significant votes yet to be counted. "We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything. And all of a sudden it was just called off," he said, and claimed fraud without any evidence. "This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country," Trump claimed. "Frankly we did win this election," he said.