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Is Joe Biden really President-Elect? Real Clear Politics denies ‘flipping’ Pennsylvania, claims ‘we never called’

The controversy sparked when rumors said they flipped Pennsylvania back to undecided with 259 electoral votes to Biden/Harris and 214 to Trump/Pence

Is Joe Biden really the President-elect? Can Donald Trump's claims of the election being rigged come true? It's 2020 and anything can happen. Trump’s legal team launched a legal challenge to the vote results in Pennsylvania and now, a major polling aggregator is said to have "flipped" the state founded by William Penn back into play saying it's too close to call. While the Associated Press is considered to be the final call, the results displayed by Real Clear Politics made waves on social media. 

RealClearPolitics is a polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. Co-Founder & President Bevan denied the claims, saying they "never called" the state for Biden. The results of their latest data for IBD/TIPP* reads "Biden 50, Trump 46" and the spread is "Biden +4". The controversy sparked when rumors floated that they flipped Pennsylvania back to undecided with 259 electoral votes to Biden/Harris and 214 to Trump/Pence.

Why did the Associated Press call the 2020 elections?

On Saturday, Biden captured the presidency when The Associated Press declared him the victor in his native Pennsylvania at 11:25 am EST. That got him the state’s 20 electoral votes, which pushed him over the 270 electoral-vote thresholds needed to prevail.

Explaining why they called the elections, AP said, "It was the final piece to fall into place after the former vice president carved a path to the White House by recapturing Democrats’ “blue wall,” a trio of Great Lakes states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — that Trump narrowly won in 2016. Those states had long served as a bulwark against Republican presidential candidates."

It further read: "But he also made historic gains in the Sun Belt, becoming the first Democrat to win Arizona since 1996. He also held a narrow lead of more than 7,000 votes on Saturday in Georgia, where a Democrat hasn’t won since 1992," adding, "Florida, the president’s adopted state and one of the largest electoral prizes, went for Trump on Tuesday. And a promising early Biden lead in North Carolina eroded. Trump continues to hold a narrow lead there, though the race is still too early to call and mail-in ballots postmarked by the Nov. 3 election day can still be counted until Thursday."

The article then explained, "On Election Night, both candidates stacked up wins in predictable places. Biden won the West Coast and carried Democratic states in New England and the mid-Atlantic. Trump won much of the South, Texas and rural, sparsely populated states in the Mountain West and Midwest. Biden’s win in Pennsylvania was a dramatic, though not unexpected, turn after Trump jumped out to an early Election Day lead of 675,000 votes and prematurely declared he had won the state."

"Over coming days, as local elections officials tabulated more ballots, Trump’s lead dropped sharply, with Biden winning roughly 75 percent of the mail-in vote between Wednesday and Friday, according to an analysis by the AP. Another reason the late-breaking mail vote broke Biden’s way: Under state law, elections officials are not allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day. By Saturday afternoon, Biden’s lead in the state had climbed to over 34,000 votes, an edge over Trump of 0.51 percentage points that placed him outside the margin for a mandatory recount. Under Pennsylvania law, a recount is automatic when the margin between two candidates in a statewide race is less than 0.5 percentage points. Biden’s lead over Trump was on track to stay outside of that margin as final votes are counted."

What Real Clear Politics has to say

When MEAWW contacted Real Clear Politics, Co-Founder & President Tom Bevan redirected us to his tweet. He said, "This is false. We never called Pennsylvania, and nothing has changed." His tweet was in response to Rudy W Giuliani, who posted, "#FakeNews won’t cover lawsuit which will invalidate 300,000 or more crooked democrat votes in Philly. Real Clear Politics just took PA away from Biden and made it a toss-up. Only the beginning please look beyond the Big Media censorship to watch it all change."

Here is the 2020 Election Results page on Real Clear Politics:

Nonetheless, the speculation soon started floating on social media. "Real Clear Politics just flipped Pennsylvania back to undecided," one tweet read and another said, "2020 President Election Live Results: Real Clear Politics just RESCINDED their call for Biden winning Pennsylvania!"

A tweet from Chuck Callesto read: "BREAKING REPORT: Real Clear Politics takes Pennsylvania OFF THE BOARD FOR JOE BIDEN, knocking him under the 270 electoral votes needed to Capture the Presidency..." Conservative political commentator Michael Knowles tweeted: "Joe Biden is not the president-elect." And media host Steven Crowder posted: "Apologies. Real Clear Politics actually NEVER called PA for Biden. This is before the incoming lawsuits and challenges. AZ is still too close to call (despite FNC’s claims otherwise). This is going to get wild and woolly."

His tweet soon sparked many reactions. "Do you think Trump has a chance Crowder?" one wrote and another said, "No dude. The election has been called by major news networks. Either wait for it to be officially certified or stop perpetuating this crap." Many Trump supporters jumped in as one tweet read: "Joe Biden is no longer President-Elect according to Real Clear Politics. At least someone has integrity!"

Meanwhile, GA Presidential Election Results tweeted the current status of votes. "Biden (D): 49.5% (2,469,118 votes) Trump (R): 49.26% (2,456,781 votes) Biden Margin: +12,337 (+746) Estimated: > 99% votes in," the post read.

Defending Joe Biden's President-elect status, many others said that he was the elected one indeed. "Real Clear Politics is a right-wing site. That is the reason they have not called Pennsylvania. Apparently politics over data. All other sites/networks waited until the results were unmistakable and undeniable. Biden won Pennsylvania fair and square," one Twitter user wrote and another said, "REAL CLEAR POLITICS DID NOT RESCIND THEIR CALL. THEY NEVER MADE IT. THEY HAVEN'T UPDATED OR TWEETED IN 3 DAYS!! AND UP UNTIL A FEW MINUTES AGO YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO THEY WERE! I'll stick with the Associated Press. Calling election results since 1848." A third shared the Associated Press map and chimed in, "Mmm I don’t think so sweetie."

The said-flip to Pennsylvania triggered a furor on social media. But, the election call has not changed from the Associated Press. In the 2020 US election, The Associated Press is accustomed to declare winners in more than 7,000 races – starting with the White House and reaching down the ballot to every seat in every state legislature. 

AP states, "Only when AP is fully confident a race has been won – defined most simply as the moment a trailing candidate no longer has a path to victory – will make a call. In the race for president in 2016, that moment came at 2:29 am ET the day after Election Day. Our APNewsAlert put it simply: 'WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump elected president of the United States.'"

Now, if the polls are changed in AP's call as well, then it may be a matter of worry. But until then, we need to set our sights on what Trump's opposition to voting counts may bring. 

This article has been updated to reflect the comments from Real Clear Politics as MEAWW reached out to them over the 2020 Election Results controversy.