Trump's voter fraud claims are 'deranged', says Philadelphia GOP election chief: 'We're getting death threats'
According to Philadelphia's Republican commissioner, President Donald Trump's voter fraud allegations are nothing but "deranged." Al Schmidt was one of three city commissioners who oversaw the elections. He has claimed his staff has been receiving several death threats after President-elect Joe Biden was projected to win Pennsylvania and later the entire election.
Trump has refused to concede defeat alleging widespread voter fraud. Meanwhile, his sons have demanded a "manual recount" in several states and First Lady Melania Trump also appears to have her husband's back.
Speaking to '60 Minutes', Schmidt said he was shocked at the allegations that were being leveled against him and his team. "From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged," the city commissioner said. “At the end of the day, we are counting eligible votes, cast by voters. The controversy surrounding it is something I don't understand. It's people making accusations that we wouldn't count those votes, or people are adding fraudulent votes, or — just, coming up with all sorts of crazy stuff."
Trump and his allies have maintained that the election was rigged and are expected to reveal evidence to back their claims in court. Axios claimed last night that the Trump campaign was mobilizing its base for on-ground combat. "We want to make sure we have an adequate supply of manpower on the ground for man-to-man combat," one adviser reportedly told the outlet. "Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be?" the president tweeted in defiance. "We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!"
Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020
His son Eric Trump and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani arrived at Philadelphia the day after the election to pursue claims of large-scale fraud. "This is absolute fraud. We've seen it in Philadelphia before," Eric said.
Speaking at a press conference at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, Giuliani said Trump was "obviously not gonna concede" and that his campaign would start filing lawsuits today. "I don't know if there's enough evidence to set aside the entire election. Certainly not around the country, maybe in Pennsylvania," he said. "In Pittsburgh, we have observers who were for 24 hours kept out of the room or kept away from the room where they were counting the mail-in ballots which of course are highly suspicious ballots. During that period of time, at least 135,000 ballots were counted."
According to the former New York mayor, ballots came in late "in bundles" and "it looked very much like they were trying to make up the 700,000 difference," referring to Trump’s significant lead in Pennsylvania before Biden mysteriously surged ahead. Giuliani alleged that Republican observers in Pittsburgh were "kept so far away they had to use binoculars to see the ballots" and that about 300,000 were not valid. He also claimed there was video evidence documenting the same plus 50 witnesses to back the claims in court. The Trump campaign will file a corresponding lawsuit for claims including "violating civil rights for conducting an unfair election" as well as violating equal protection by treating major cities Philadelphia and Pittsburgh different from the rest of the state.
Meanwhile, Giuliani also alleged that around 450,000 mail-in ballots were separated from envelopes so Republican observers couldn't confirm if they were valid. Trump's voter fraud claims have been met with skepticism from his critics over a "lack of evidence" for alleged irregularities. At the same time, it is also important to note that a record number of people cast their ballots by mail fearing Covid-19.