Trump tries to undermine the legitimacy of the election with baseless claims at debate

[Celerity]

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-tries-to-undermine-the-legitimacy-of-the-election-with-baseless-claims-at-debate-031232408.html

President Trump made several false claims about the accuracy and integrity of American elections during the first presidential debate on Tuesday night. “This is going to be fraud like you’ve never seen,” Trump said of the upcoming election. Trump offered no real evidence for this assertion, instead throwing out an array of one-off comments about small incidents that were largely examples of mistakes by election workers that represent a minuscule number of votes. “He’s trying to scare people into thinking it’s not going to be legitimate,” Democrat Joe Biden told the debate audience. “He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of this election,” Biden said. “If we get the votes, it’s going to be all over. He’s going to go.”

But Trump also suggested again – as he has repeatedly in recent weeks – that he might not accept the election results. “If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that,” Trump said. Trump’s untrue statements about voting continue a pattern this year of wild claims he has made about cheating and a rigged election. Ironically, the greatest threat to the election is not widespread or coordinated cheating. Instead it is the disinformation flowing from the country’s own president, according to election experts, including Republicans who have fought legal battles for their party for many years.

“For the first time, the president of the United States is denigrating the credibility of our elections and who the winners are, corroding a pillar of the country and the democracy,” Ben Ginsberg, who led the 2000 election recount effort and is one of the Republican party’s top election lawyers, said recently. FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week that comments about election fraud – like those made by Trump – are a form of “misinformation” and “will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in the validity of their vote.”

The president’s behavior is unprecedented in American history and has led to questions about whether he is preparing to excuse a possible loss to Biden or whether this is a more nefarious effort aimed at claiming victory on election night before all mail ballots are counted. The president’s false claims revolved largely around mail ballots. But even here he said Tuesday that his only problem is with “unsolicited” ballots. These are ballots that are sent automatically to all registered voters in a state. “A solicited ballot is OK,” Trump said. Almost every state in the country is sending out solicited ballots. Only nine states and the District of Columbia are sending out unsolicited ballots. None of these states are particularly competitive in the presidential election, and most of them have years of experience with sending out unsolicited ballots and have done so without problem.

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Trump’s Repeated False Attacks on Mail-In Ballots

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/trumps-repeated-false-attacks-on-mail-in-ballots/

In the past 48 hours, President Donald Trump repeatedly has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, claiming that mail-in voting is a “disaster” and “out of control” and suggesting without evidence that Democrats are going to steal the election. The president repeatedly sows doubt about mail-in voting, echoing what intelligence officials have said is a Russian strategy to undermine public trust in the election.

At a Sept. 23 press briefing, the president said “we’re going to have to see what happens,” when he was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “Get rid of the ballots,” he said, and there would be a “very peaceful … continuation” of power. “The ballots are out of control,” he said of mail-in ballots. “You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.” He doubled down the next day, saying mail-in ballots are “a whole big scam” when asked if he would only accept the election results if he wins. “We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be,” he told reporters on Sept. 24. “I don’t know that it can be with this whole situation — unsolicited ballots. They’re unsolicited; millions being sent to everybody. And we’ll see.”

We have been tracking the president’s remarks about mail-in voting. In late July, we wrote a story — “The President’s Trumped-Up Claims of Voter Fraud” — recapping his numerous false, misleading and unsupported claims to date about mail-in ballots. At the time, Trump had suggested the 2020 election should be postponed, claiming mail-in voting this year will result in the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” Since then, the president has ramped up his attacks on mail-in voting on a near-daily basis. His attacks come despite a U.S. intelligence bulletin issued to law enforcement agencies on Sept. 3 warning that Russia wants “to undermine public trust in the electoral process” by “amplifying criticisms of vote-by-mail,” as first reported by ABC News.

At a Sept. 17 hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that “the steady drumbeat of misinformation … will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in the validity of their vote.” Here we recap the many stories we have done this year on the president’s false, misleading and unsupported statements about the potential for voter fraud. We also reviewed his statements about mail-in ballots this month and found he has been repeatedly spreading misinformation in particular about foreign governments making up “counterfeit ballots” and Democrats sending out “unsolicited ballots” to rig the election. He also has been repeatedly spreading false information about Nevada, saying he will “win this state easily,” if not for mail-in ballots — even though Trump lost Nevada in 2016 and is trailing in the polls there again this election.

‘Farcical’ Claims about Foreign Counterfeit Ballots..........

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[Blue Owl]

1. The actions of a desperate, losing man

n/t

[EarlG]

2. "This is going to be fraud like you've never seen."

For a minute there I thought he was handing over his tax returns.

[Celerity]

3. Uncle Scam