Trump's First Speech After Election Day Got Cut Off & Twitter Is Roasting Him
The 2020 election feels like it's been going on, oh, forever. Through it all, President Donald Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims of voter fraud, and on Nov. 5, he did it again. Except, some people are clearly not giving him the airtime anymore — literally. During Trump's first speech after Election Day 2020, multiple networks decided to drop the speech within two minutes, and Twitter is absolutely loving the mic drop.
Trump had stayed relatively quiet in the days since polls closed on Nov. 3. After it became clear the election would not be called that same night, both Trump and his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, made public statements with very different tones. While Biden urged Americans to wait for all votes to be counted, Trump spoke to the public in the early hours of Nov. 4 to claim victory in several states that, as of Nov. 5, still have not been called for either candidate. He also claimed in a tweet that Democrats were attempting to steal the election. The tweet was later flagged by Twitter as containing inaccurate information.
On Nov. 5, with the race still uncalled, Trump broke that silence to make his first public speech. And of course, he began by attacking Americans' votes and the electoral process. "If you count the legal votes, I easily win," he said. But given how demonstrably untrue that was, news networks weren't having it. Within minutes, the major news networks had cut away, going back to their regular programming.
Across social media, many people thanked the networks for refusing to air more falsehoods. Trump has repeatedly alleged voter fraud, particularly involving mail-in ballots, despite the fact there is no evidence of any such fraud, according to the FBI.
Trump's remarks — and cutoff — comes as his potential path to re-election is getting dangerously narrow. As of Nov. 5, two states that Trump won in 2016, Michigan and Wisconsin, have been called for Biden. One more, Arizona, is looking so likely that some news outlets have also added it to Biden's tally. As of the time of Trump's press conference, Biden was leading the race with between 253 and 264 electoral votes, while Trump lagged behind with 214. A candidate needs to secure a minimum of 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
With six states still uncalled as of the Thursday after Election Day, the White House hangs in the balance. However, as state officials have promised, every vote will be counted — and the candidates will just have to wait as long as that takes.
