- President Trump has used a speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) to repeat claims Democrats are trying to rig the upcoming election
- Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated assertions that millions of mail-in ballots will be used fraudulently to tip the scales on November 3
- President Trump and a number of Republican allies have been ramping up the rhetoric about voter fraud in recent months
- But yesterday’s speech is the first time the President has openly accused Democrats of using the pandemic as a tool to disrupt free and fair elections
- The Democrats have pushed to enable universal mail-in ballots to allow people to avoid voting in-person to help stop the spread of the virus
- Polling data from RealClear Politics has the President trailing Joe Biden by around eight points nationally, and margins in several key states Trump won in 2016 have flipped in Biden’s favour
- Trump and his press secretary Kayleigh McEnany have both said the Trump campaign may not accept the results of the election if the incumbent president loses
President Donald Trump has used a speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) to repeat claims Democrats are trying to rig the upcoming election.
Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated assertions millions of mail-in ballots will be used fraudulently to tip the scales on November 3.
The President made the remarks in an impromptu address on the first day of the RNC in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Rigged election”
Trump was greeted with cheers from a small number of delegates when he made the speech after securing the Republican nomination for president.
“What they’re doing is using COVID to steal our election,” Trump stated.
“This is stealing millions of votes. We’re going to win this election. The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,” he said.
President Trump and a number of Republican allies have been ramping up the rhetoric about voter fraud in recent months as the campaign continues to trail Democrat nominee Joe Biden by a wide margin.
But yesterday’s speech is the first time the President has openly accused Democrats of using the pandemic as a tool to disrupt free and fair elections.
“We caught them doing some really bad things in 2016 […] we have to be very careful because they’re trying it again,” he said, speaking of the unsubstantiated claims the Obama/Biden administration was spying on his campaign.
“This time they’re trying to do it with the whole post office scam. They’ll blame it on the post office. You could see them setting it up. Be very careful and watch it very carefully. We have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country,” the President said.
The campaign trails
Polling data from RealClear Politics has the President trailing Joe Biden by around eight points nationally, and margins in several key states Trump won in 2016 have flipped in Biden’s favour.
Biden also leads comfortably in Florida (five points) and Arizona (two points) — both states Trump won in 2016, but which have been hard hit by coronavirus outbreaks.
The President won Iowa, Ohio and Texas by margins of eight to nine per cent in 2016, but now trails by 2.3 points in Ohio. His margin has narrowed to 3.5 per cent in Texas and 1.7 per cent in Iowa.
The U.S. has now had more than 5.7 million cases of COVID-19, and over 177,000 deaths. Some estimates put the eventual death toll closer to a quarter of a million people by election day.
The Democrats have pushed to enable universal mail-in ballots to allow people to avoid voting in-person to help stop the spread of the virus.
Trump and his press secretary Kayleigh McEnany have both said the Trump campaign may not accept the results of the election if the incumbent president loses.