From the New York Times unworkable. Borrow this president today, as bind takes a growing led in the electoral college. President tromp falsely claims that the election is being stolen from Maggie Haber. On his dangerous step, it's Friday November. Sixth, Maggie. It feels like we just watch something historic and dark and profoundly alarming just happen at the White House. Michael, that's right. We just witnessed something scary at the White House, wages, which is something that could have proof

and impacts on how voters feel about the democratic process, about their trust in the sanctity of the electoral process and something that could have profound implications. Long after Donald Trump is out of office. I will start by acknowledging that this would be a challenging event to talk about, and cover journalists thickly, but we're going to do it is important and we're not gonna play much of this new conference that the present gave because it was defined by lies information. But I do want to talk about what the present was trying to do here, and I wonder if you can walk us through what happened tonight. So Michael, the President announced abruptly that he would be giving a statement from the White House Briefing Room after being out of you all day he was working the oval office on he took to the party.

The breathing arm about an hour after they announced. If you very much and he looked downcast, he looked dejected. He had something in his hand. There are some notes that he later read from and to the extent that AIDS knew what he was going to say. They said that he was going to talk about, walls and pulling side issues in various states, but most of them didn't really know what he was going to say good evening. I'd like to provide the american people but with an update on our efforts to protect the intact. They are a very important twenty twenty election. If you count The legal votes I easily when and when he spoke, began by declaring that if you count the quorum quote legal votes then he had won the election easily. This is obviously a why the votes that had been counted in various states are legal. We ve just never heard something like this from a you as president,

not in the last century and possibly not ever view we want these and many other victories despite historic election interference from big media, big money and big tech. and then he turned to what he painted as essentially abroad conspiracy against him by Democrats. By pulling site workers and by the media. He talked about media pulling before the election and he has talked about some of this before, but he was painting. It is part of a grander effort to suppress his voters to try to keep people from turning out because the thought tat, he would be losing so badly and newspapers were all in on it. Maybe I want a pause to talk about that part of this news coverage. The poles were off again the secret. They did In a few cases like Wisconsin overestimate how well Joe Biden would do in the battleground states, The story the president is telling here is that they were intentionally

and the news organisations doing polling got it wrong on purpose the notion being from what he said that that would somehow suppress report Can voters either by discouraging them or discarding? Fundraising, as that, would he sang Michael, that's exactly right and you are correct that some of the pulling was off this year in several places, but he painted it is part of a broader scheme to keep his voters from wanting to go out on election day and those which is not true. This is, I would hope it is self evident, but that is not true. That need is decidedly not true, and what do you think the intention of that focus is from the present. So the President Michael, has long painted outcomes that he doesn't like as part of a grander conspiracy or effort to undermine him, and what he was trying to do here is suggest that there was a broad

attempt to take the selection from him and everything that he doesn't like was part of that and as he, we ve seen him do many times in the past. He reaches first random, disparate pieces of evidence that he can point to say that these support his statement in the case of the media was the pulling in the case of individual states. He pointed to a random incidents involving specific ballots or election workers. Might let's talk about what the president is key? coming about the process and the personnel involved in cash the actual vote from election day sure so in terms of the process, Michael, he pointed to a bunch of different incidents in a couple of states, and here scribe thee the lead than he had had. We were winning in all the keel. Ok, it by a lot actually, and then our numbers started morale

those are getting whittled away. It secret as getting quote whittled down so finds it. He pointed to Georgia and he said, did likewise in Georgia won by a lot. A lot has led in enclosed it four thousand on election night in that state, but got whittled down right now. It's getting to be sure point where I go from winning by a lot too, perhaps being even down a little bit. He to something similar in Michigan and whittled down every in every case they got little them, and the idea here that he was positing which again is baseless, is that he had these leads, and then people who oppose him and election workers forge some deal to try to make fact sure enough ballots to overtake his lead right. In my view, what is actually happening in these states that the present is trying to characterize some form of corruption? What's happening, Michael's vote

only since this man became president has there been a president announcing that the election result should be called on election night. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it's not clear, because these are close elections and it's been very kind this was always going to be a close race in certain states, and this is an election with a very high number of absentee ballots and early votes right because of the pandemic, a number of states adjusted their processes and we ve never had this number of states having such a huge quantity of early votes and absentee balancing. He said they are counting votes. They are doing what is legal, he is painting it as a conspiracy against him, Maggie worker. From long, I believe, the press self is partially responsible for the reason that count is working. The way it is he was involved in violence

suits, asking that mail and ballots not be counted before election. In some cases he absolutely was Michael and I would argue, there's another way that he is responsible for this, which is that he has been casting aspersions on the by male voting system writ large for months. Republican leaders asked him. His own campaign advisers asked him to please stop doing that, because he was depressing his own vote, including among seniors, who vote heavily by absentee ballot. By doing this, and by making people, MR for the system. He was potentially impacting his own voters. There is every reason to believe that that could have happened to so. Yes, the president has created a situation, at least partly by his happened, where more Democrats were voting by absentee and by an early vote, right and basically is describing a phenomenon we had always anticipated, which is this kind of.

I urge of republican votes on election day for tromp right this red mirage, yielding to mail and ballots a day later or two days that are breaking for Biden and he is describing that counting process and then inevitable fluctuation of the vote counts as fraudulent legal when it when, in fact, as you just said, it is very much just the process in place right now in this country during a pandemic and one he played a role in that's exactly right. It's very much this process in its been very clear that that was always gonna, be the process making. The president also focused on observe the people who watch vote counting in this case at this point, many them watching mail and ballots get counted, and he seems to be suggesting basis that something sinister is going on there. Can you owe me understand what he is saying? What is

owing to say, Michael, is the pole. Watchers, which is legal tadpole waters for his team, have been kept illegally from. watching as we understand it, that is not what has happened in our understanding of of incidents where there have been debates There have been efforts to keep the watchers at Bay, or at least a certain distance, but again is making it all sound as if it is part of some effort to entirely discount everything he's doing so. How does this press conference ultimately end? So the press conference wines down with the president focusing on Joe Biden, Democrats and saying that he wants them to say they only one quarter, good legal votes to be counted because they talk about roads They should use the word legal legal works. We want every legal vote counting and I want every legal vote counted. We Democrats would say that that is what I believe. they ve never said otherwise, and we can't let that happen to delay.

States of America is not a question of who wins republican Democrat Joe myself. We can't let that happen to our country among his trying to sound something about a more sanguine, not for a second, where it's sort of its, not a question of who wins whether its reply again, Democrat Joe Myself, what he was doing Michael, was doing something with dismount from this sort of just shocking. Several minutes is better. Podium, combining what clearly people had said to him to say, which was it's not about? Who wine? and then he those answers on version which is this is all being stolen and it's a disgrace on our country. He answered that's what was happening there. As you know, I've claims

Who states in the EAST Lamy States a week, and he ends by saying that he is claimed certain states, and then Biden has claimed certain states which we just want me very clear. Harris is not how this works would ultimately have a fairly judges, you're gonna have to real and that he has a feeling that clinical judges going to have to be involved in this, and the person who has been following a lot a lawsuit so far is Trump and his campaign. What he's commit himself to a path of litigation, they sent Michael the dial shrunk from it seems like a thing yes heap. He could certainly forecast they're going to go down. The legal rules for the foreseeable future, but there's a little motion against and we can't stand for that in our country? Thank you very much. Maggie, in spite of the fact that the path,

There is an you could still when this election it fell to some degree than in his own peculiar way. You would know much better than me but in this new conference he was acknowledging that he's losing this race right he's Not denying the math is denying its legitimacy. That's exactly right! Michael look! This was to the extent that we see politicians and you and I have covered Christians who have won and who have lost in every politician who loses goes through something of a stage of grief. This is a president who had never so much is run for city counts, when he ran and foreign one, the presidency and the blue, thing is a wholly familiar experience for him in life in general, but certainly something that just can't be spun, which is what is trying to do. I note that the area that the campaign is looking toward in terms of how it could win the path toward winning the president and his advisers hold out some hope:

that he could possibly win both Arizona and Pennsylvania without those two. There is no path for him retaining the presidency, but I think he knows that This is turning against him at the moment, and I think he is struggling to come to terms with that we'll be right back tradition in the distance, to the earth for all her healing gifts. They believe that plants can do some pretty amazing things. That's why they use medicinal greater herbs like an Asia, eucalyptus and ginger and their teeth to help soothe and support your body. Naturally, everyone

way. We turn mother nature is there to remind us that she's got our back visit, traditional medicinal dot com and use code and mighty twenty to see what makes their teeth. So incredible, I'm Wendy Door and I'm an editor on the daily. For most, my adult life, I thought of the New York Times as edge I ain't news machine that spit out news stories all day, long kind of like a vending machine and I'm embarrassed to say that it wasn't really until I came to work here at the times that I started to think about the reporters behind those news stories and what it takes to get the story. In the first place, sometimes these reporters risked their lives. Sometimes they talk to us. Two in the morning, sometimes they call us from a war zone and nodded Do they tell us what's happening on the ground wherever they are, but they also give us the context that we need to understand it. If you like hearing, these reporters every day, which I know I do the one thing

that you can do to support them and the daily is to subscribe to the New York Times. If you'd like to do that, go to and why times dot com slash subscribe, Maggie! Let's go back to understand everything that led up. This press conference on Thursday, the last time we talk to you was on election day, so take us back to election and help us understand what has gone on in the trunk camp since them. On election night, president Tromp was in the White House. He was in the residents. He was watching returns with family members and only a very small number of advisers came in and out, and initially they were very excited. There were excited because, the first major state, the first Battleground get called, was Florida great and it was called for the president and

of the public pulling leading into election night, had suggested that Florida was not just likely to go for Biden, but would heavily go for binding and so for Trump, whose very superseded is winning. Florida became reminiscent of his twenty sixteen when he went on such a night that year, Florida going his way was was vital and so his his folks and he felt like this was going to be something of a recasting of that night and they were killing grade and suddenly over time. This is a big, develop Jack authorities. Decision to ask is key: Arizona for Joe Biden, that is a big get for the bag and care Fox news called Arizona forbidden: are you one hundred percent sure of that call and when you made it, and why did you make absolutely we made it after. Basically, a half hour of debating is at times yet because it was it's, it's been clear for a while and their excitement,

and their good mood was completely punctured? The president? Some of his top advisers were absolutely livid. They started frantically reaching out to Fox to try to get the call taken back yard Kirshner. The president's senior adviser and son in law called Rupert Murdoch. None of this was Danny Avail and a few hours later, the Associated Press called Arizona for binding as well. Some of the president's advisers wanted him to go out and talk at some point before me so that he could be the first person to speak, but that didn't happen, and instead Joe Biden went out and gave a statement in Delaware, very brief statement, but a very traditional when an election is not called yet statement of what we're gonna win. This and the president was live it again.

he tweeted, which is often a sign that he's not happy any tweeted. He was going to give a statement of his own. And around two a dot m. Maybe a little bit after give a statement. He did. He descended from the upper floors of the White House. Residence is on the east side of the White House. He spoke at a podium on a on a platform that have been built for the night and he was angry. He said that this was a fraud on the american people. He said that he had won the election and that set the tone for what has happened over the last few days right and it soon after that, the next morning and afternoon of the law

suits again correct. Now some of the losses were already in place. There was at a loss in Pennsylvania that the campaign joined, but in several states they suddenly started filing lawsuits over the last few days. Georgia, as one of the places they announced, will assume that they are planning to file in the data, a bunch of key battle grounds that have either been leaning toward Joe Biden or were likely to get call for Joe Biden that they wanted to try to impact the campaign and what for nature of these lawsuits. It depends by state, but in some cases it's about counting irregularities. In the case of Pennsylvania, it was joining an existing suit related to an extended period of time for when ballots that have come in during a certain period could be counted whether they were after the legs actual election day for a few days, and some of them were seen by legal experts has failed

frivolous. I imagine you ve been on the phone with my has officials campaign officials all day, long in the past forty eight hours, what else have you been hearing about? What's been going on inside this operation since election? I look there's a sense of shock for some people you'd really be surprised at how many people currently in the White House and also in the campaign, leave the Donald Trump winning was a certainty and there are many of them in a state of shock, and I think that brings us back to tonight and to the president's speech Maggie, as I was watching, I couldn't help, but think that, Anyways Trump has spent ass for years, laying the groundwork for what he was doing during this news coverage by taking the media attacking the electoral process, something he started doing the moment. He was elected, yes attacking any system, he sees as disadvantaging.

portraying those systems as run by his enemies, was it feels like what happened on Thursday night was inevitable. I think I tried my but I think something can be inevitable on still nonetheless be shocking. We're talking about a president who, called the election. He won rigged in twenty sixteen right because he felt he should want to popular vote, even though it didn t he claimed that he had really one the popular vote. He made outrageous allegations about millions of illegal votes being cast for Hillary Clinton, and that's why she won the popular vote. He has made allegations about voter fraud ever since then only escalating the skill with which he has made those allegations, and he has question. Anything that has being in any way in his mind,

in his way or critical of ham or against him, and so sure all of that came cacophonous lay together for him to say so. That again was not surprising. That was shocking geometry. so the you're. Using that word, I don't consider you easily shocked. I is I'm not easily and, as you know, I have been soup Is that how often people have been shocked over the four years space, by some of what he does, because it's been clear that his, if you are paying attention, has campaign in TWAIN. Sixteen that cities gonna do many these things, but seeing an american president calling it a still in progress election amid a pandemic, a fraud on the public was shocking. It was just something fundamentally different in this moment: Maggie

feels to me, like the ultimate question is: can our system sustain this kind of? Why told by the president from the White House, and it feels like the answer? it's gonna be dependent on the degree to which the president's message is either embraced or rejected, The president's allies within this system- and here I am thinking about sort of media Republicans in Congress and the rest of the administration, the department justice for example, and then, of course, of federal judges appointed by the president. So what do we know so far? it's, an excellent question, Michael and so far there are varying answers. Fox news, reporters and anchors. Some of them have pushed back aggressively on what the president said: people they prepare, but then you have shown Hannity who embraces a lot.

What the president said: you have republican leaders like Mitch, Mcconnell the Son of a party leader silent as the president of saying this. Most republican members of Congress, particularly leadership among Republicans in Congress, had been conspicuously silence. So far you have most members of the republican leader, the class privately, expressing concern about some of the president's words but afraid of contradicting and publicly from reality of reasons, one of which is that nobody wants to exacerbate an already volatile situation. maybe why we ve been talking so camel, do accountable for knowing this Senators, ERS Linsey, Graham and Senator TED crews, both appeared on Fox on shant entity. Said that they stand with the president. So that's

both conservative media am some pretty heavy, hitting Republicans in Congress saying that they support the president and his message in this moment does too heavy hitters, but at least Lindsey Graham, is doing it under some duress, the president's oldest son, Donald Trump Junior tweeted, attacking those he ran for not speaking out before tat crews, also knows that a lot of his own voters are trump voters, and I imagine that's part of why he's doing it too. So we shall see if other people embraced this call, and what about federal judge, especially those appointed by the present it's too soon say, Michael because these cases, many of them are just beginning to make their way through the system,

There is a goal of some other president's allies to get these lawsuits to wind up in the Supreme Court. Maybe does it matter whether or not the systems were talking about support the president in his approach to this strategy of aiming fraud and deception or Michael. It certainly matters if the cornerstone supporting them Therefore, there are going to be in some cases. Are something of a if not a last word that MR backstop It matters in terms of the President's Do I need to run out the string, whether the leadership in the Senate and the house support him on this and to be clear, there is no chance of Mitch. Mcconnell was happy about what the president has been saying, but how he chooses to deal with that, I think, is an open question and it will be determined by what the president does in the coming weeks and when this election is called and exactly how it's called. But

the biggest question for me honestly in terms of systems is conservative. Media server media has been so incredibly important to the president's rise in the first place as a candidate, and so if they turn on him. If turn on him. They don't we, I think, a lot harder for him to get oxygen into sustain whatever it is trying to do to keep the election going. If he is dead, without those three without all of those three usually no path. You don't, regardless of whether the system's support the presidency in this strategy or tell him it's time to stop it, and I guess, regardless of exactly how the president proceeds over the next few weeks, if he ends up losing. I wonder what you think This message from him is going to mean for the sixty nine million people who voted for him as they think

the seventy three million fellow Americans, neighbours in their co workers who voted for Joe Biden, I mean what is this going to do tat, half country part of wider. U S, system works historically, is faith in it and believe that it is ultimately one of integrity and one to be believed in and if you have literally half or slightly less than half the country. potentially questioning that it's very hard to go back when we ve already seen trust in our media undermine. We already seen trust in our government under my, but it feels like what we haven't seen face, undermining we're, still exists within our election system. That's right so Two thousand Michael a lot of people have faith in the election system shaken because the presidential election was contested by the neck

and ass. You had to nominees Al Gore and George W Bush, who are committed to the sanctity integrity of how people viewed this process, and they were committed to moving forward peacefully. That is not what our trump is committed to. He has made that very clear with everything he has done this week, and he and his family members are openly pressuring other Republicans to join him. In that call. This is a potentially dangerous s. Action well

There's one those interviews? What doesn't quite feel like thank you is the right word, but I appreciate or time Maggie wrinkle. Thank you for having me. As of early Friday morning, Dubai Was seventeen electoral college vote shy of reaching the to hunt? and seventy needed to win while President Trump needed Fifty's electoral college votes, as counting continued in several battleground states. Biden appeared to be on the cusp of tea, in the lead in Pennsylvania. If that were to happen and

in to win the state. He would surpass two hundred and seventy, and when the presidency will be right back on the road to success, we all start somewhere at Walmart. It doesn't matter where you begin. Every name is a passport to opportunity. More than three quarters of our management stores started out as hourly workers, including our president, an see yo, and while it is true that our associates build their own roads to success, we are committed to strengthening their paths by investing in their futures like offering the to earn a college degree, while paying just one dollar a day, learn more at walmart dot com slashed spark, here's what else you need today,

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