By Wednesday the results of the election were unclear.
President Donald Trump and Joe Biden both had paths to 270 Electoral College votes.
And now Donald Trump declared one major swing state victory that left jaws on the ground.
On election night, Donald Trump held a lead of about 700,000 votes in the critical state of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes were critical to both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Whoever lost would see their path to the Presidency closed off.
But Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced there were 1.5 million mail-in absentee ballots left to count.
In Pennsylvania, those votes overwhelmingly favored Joe Biden and the only question left was if there would be enough of them to flip the state – and the Presidency – to Joe Biden.
The following day President Trump and his campaign declared victory in the state.
“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Top campaign officials backed up the President.
“We are declaring a victory in Pennsylvania,” campaign manager Bill Steipen told reporters.
Top communications advisor Jason Miller wrote on social media that “@realDonaldTrump is going to be the winner of Pennsylvania.”
Networks and media outlets were slow to call states for President Trump.
Early on in Florida, it was clear President Trump would carry the state as he cut his margin of defeat in Miami-Dade – the state’s most populous county – from 30 points in 2016 to seven.
But despite the obvious realities of the math, networks wouldn’t call Florida for hours in an effort to deprive President Trump of momentum in the race.
In Pennsylvania, the networks wouldn’t call the race because the number of outstanding mail-in ballots’ controversial rules about accepting votes for up to three days after the election even if there was a postmark or proof of mailing to ensure the votes were legally cast on time.
As the mail-in votes poured in, the President’s margin in Pennsylvania shrunk to around 190,000 votes.
But that did not dim his campaign’s optimism which strongly contended that the President would win the state.
If President Trump hangs on and wins Pennsylvania, that will put him one state away from securing a second term.
The fake news media ranted and raved about how Donald Trump “attacked democracy” by declaring victory, but the simple fact of the matter is the fake news media is refusing to call races where the President has clearly won in an effort to convince Americans that Trump is far away from the 270 Electoral College vote threshold and that his efforts to count every vote are fruitless and desperate.
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