Trump camp pushes voter fraud conspiracy to raise funds for legal battles: 'They will try to steal election'
President Donald Trump had hinted in the past that he does not plan to go down quietly into the night if it looked like he was losing his reelection bid in 2020. And he has made good on his words after the contentious presidential race failed to yield a clear winner even after over 24 hours past the night of November 3.
Even as the duly cast votes continue to be counted in some of the key battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, as of Wednesday night, Democratic nominee Joe Biden had bagged Michigan and Wisconsin, flipping them blue and racing ahead of the POTUS to get closer to the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency.
Meanwhile, after the incumbent president prematurely declared himself the winner of the race, claiming without evidence that there was widespread "voter fraud" and the Democrats attempting to steal the election away from him on an Election night address to the nation, the Trump campaign reportedly indicated that the POTUS plans to “immediately” request for a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin and is considering legal action in Arizona and Nevada to stop the vote count.
Officials also filed a suit in Michigan requesting the state to stop counting ballots until the Trump campaign was allowed access to observe the votes being opened and totaled. If the Trump campaign moves ahead with the court challenges and potential recounts, the suits are expected to cost millions.
Since the Trump camp was at a significant cash disadvantage in the final weeks of the race, refunding the campaign is particularly important if they want to keep fighting to get him reelected this year. As a result, efforts to invite further donations from their supporters began as soon as the president falsely declared victory on election night and said that he was prepared to move to the Supreme Court to file a motion for the end of vote counting in the states where he felt voter fraud existed.
A flurry of emails and text messages with essentially unproven conspiracy theories advocated by the president were reportedly sent out to supporters of Trump. "They will try to steal the Election," one such appeal via email said.
Another, which had the subject line "Just like I predicted," contained the message: "I need YOUR HELP to ensure we have the resources to protect the results. We can’t allow the Left-wing MOB to undermine our Election. I’m asking my fiercest and most loyal defenders, like YOU, to FIGHT BACK!" Some of the fundraising emails seemed to be directed from the office of Vice President Mike Pence with the subject line "The President and I need YOU."
Despite having more than $100 million in the bank when they started out their campaign earlier this year, the cash quickly depleted and as a result, the Trump campaign entered the final month with only $63.1 million. At the same time, the Biden campaign came into October with more than $177 million in the bank.
Regardless, administration officials have indicated that the president had no intention of backing down from ensuring that the election was a fair one, according to him. "We are obviously leading a full court press to make sure that we have all of our legal teams that are in place," senior adviser Jason Miller said in a statement. "We want to make sure that all legally cast ballots are counted. We also want to make sure that illegally cast ballots are not counted."