Federal agencies overseeing election security joined with a coalition of officials from each state on Thursday to condemn claims that there is any evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, both within the Department of Homeland Security, issued a joint statement in which they declared this election ‘the most secure in American history’.
They added that there was no evidence of votes being changed, deleted or lost, or that the voting system across the country had been in any way compromised.
Trump is already said to have been angered by the actions of the election security agencies, after they established a website debunking election misinformation and one of their top officials, Chris Krebs, feared the president may fire him for contradicting one of his tweets.
Yet, the president continued to push his unfounded fraud allegations on Thursday night as he took to favorite medium Twitter to claim ‘Biden did not win, he lost by a lot!’ and retweeted several conspiracy theories about the voting software used stealing thousands of votes for him and deleting millions more.
In three tweets, he praised his Fox News ally Sean Hannity for a segment on the debunked allegation of software malfunctions, despite spending most of the day hitting out at the network and calling on his followers to stop watching.
The segment referenced the same conspiracy theory Trump pushed earlier on Thursday from right-wing news network One America News Network that alleges through the Dominion Voting System, 2.7million Trump ballots were deleted and some switched to President-elect Biden.
Federal agencies charged with election security have spoken out against President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in a statement released Thursday declaring that this election was ‘the most secure in American history’
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, both within the Department of Homeland Security, issued a joint statement Thursday in which they said there was no fraud
VIRGINIA: Armed supporters of Donald Trump attend the ‘Stop The Steal Caravan’ rally in front of the Virginia State Capitol on Wednesday
VIRGINIA: Supporters of Donald Trump attend the ‘Stop The Steal Caravan’ rally in front of the Virginia State Capitol on Thursday night. They have continued to protest despite federal agencies insisted the fraud claims are false
ARIZONA: Trump supporters also protested in Arizona where they echoed Trump’s claims of voter fraud
VIRGINIA: A ‘Boogaloo Boy’ attends the ‘Stop The Steal Caravan’ rally in front of the Virginia State Capitol on Thursday
Despite the insistence from federal agencies that this was not the case, Trump’s own unswaying claim that the election is being ‘rigged’ and stolen from him drove his supporters out to protest again on Thursday night in states such as Arizona and Virginia.
In Arizona, protesters once again surrounded the election center in Maricopa County, where they have gathered for more than a week after a host of fake claims circulated on social media about the vote tally there.
Despite the comments from the federal agenices, Trump insisted that ‘Biden did not win’ in a tweet on Thursday night
They have persistently called for all votes to be counted, despite officials telling them that all votes are always counted as part of the election process. Arizona was called early for Biden, angering Trump and causing his supporters to claim misconduct.
In Virginia, Trump supporters gathered outside of the State Capitol in Richmond as part of a ‘Stop The Steal Caravan’. This was the final stop before it hit the ‘Million MAGA March’ to take place in Washington D.C.
Some held signs reading ‘Stop the Steal’ while a little girl held one saying ‘Keep me safe from Biden’.
The statement from the agencies on Thursday had sought to put an end to the protests from the public and to the unceasing claims from Trump and his allies, as Trump still refuses to concede five days after Joe Biden was deemed president elect.
VIRGINIA: Supporters of Donald Trump attend the ‘Stop The Steal Caravan’ rally in front of the Virginia State Capitol
VIRGINIA: A little girl holds a ‘Keep me safe from Biden’ sign at a Trump rally in Virginia
A school bus claiming president-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ‘Want To Steal Our Election’ drives by at the ‘Stop The Steal Caravan’ rally in front of the Virginia State Capitol on November 12
VIRGINIA: One protester held a bullhorn with a note referencing the QAnon conspiracy theory
VIRGINIA: Richmond was the final stop for the Trump caravan before the ‘Million MAGA March’ in Washington D.C.
VIRGINIA: Some Trump supporters carried signs reading ‘Stop the Steal’ in Richmond on Thursday
‘The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,’ the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council said in a statement.
‘Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result.’
The statement ensures the American public that there are ‘paper records of each vote’ in all states ‘allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary’.
‘This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors,’ it stated.
Yet the agencies added that there is ‘no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised’.
The statement also appeared to take a hit at the president and those standing with him as he fails to conceded the election, saying: ‘While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too.’
It advised people to ‘turn to election officials as trusted voices as they administer elections’ if they had questions.
As the statement was issued, rumors began to circulate on social media that the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, had been fired, but this proved to be untrue.
Krebs has drawn widespread bipartisan praise for his handling of the November 3 U.S. election, which generally ran smoothly despite persistent fears that foreign hackers might try to undermine the vote.
Rumors circulated that Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with the Department of Homeland Security, could be fired by Trump as he refused to delete accurate information about the election
But he drew the ire of the Trump White House over a website run by CISA dubbed ‘Rumor Control’ which debunks misinformation about the election, according to Reuters.
The Rumor Control site was designed to take on any foreign misinformation – but ended up contradicting unsubstantiated claims being put forward by the president as he seeks to wipe away Biden’s lead in battleground states.
Trump praised his Fox ally Sean Hannity for a segment which featured debunked allegation of software malfunctions
Trump continued to push debunked conspiracy theories on Twitter on Thursday despite more campaign losses
White House officials have asked for content to be edited or removed from the website, which has pushed back against false claims that Democrats are behind a mass election fraud operation. CISA officials have refused to delete accurate information.
Bryan Ware, assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, confirmed to Reuters that he had handed in his resignation on Thursday.
Trump has also continued his Twitter rampage about the election being stolen from him, pushing a claim that votes were deleted even as state-level GOP leaders begin to desert him.
‘REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE,’ he tweeted on Thursday afternoon, pushing the claim from OANN.
‘DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.’
Dominion Voting Systems, which makes software that local governments around the nation use to help run their elections, became the center of unfounded claims of fraud last week after a clerk’s error in a small, Republican-leaning Michigan county.
The error was jumped on as an example of vote-rigging because it wrongly favored Joe Biden before being fixed.
A week later, that misinterpreted mistake snowballed into a deluge of false claims that Democrats have deep ties to Dominion Voting Systems.
The claim, however, has been widely debunked in the media and by state election officials who provided explanations of periodic errors in the massive counting process.
As the president continues to tout the claim, however, many of his supporters continue to believe it and continue their ‘Stop the Steal’ protests, insisting that Trump has won.
ARIZONA: In Arizona, protesters once again surrounded the election center in Maricopa County on Thursday, where they have gathered for more than a week after a host of fake claims circulated on social media about the vote tally there
ARIZONA: The supporters held banners that claimed people may have voted more than once in Arizona
ARIZONA: Some Trump supporters in Maricopa County on Thursday brought Hunter Biden into their signs
ARIZONA: A supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump blows into a shofar during a ‘Stop the Steal’ protest in Maricopa
On Thursday, Trump also blasted the election as ‘rigged’ as he retweeted a claim from Project Veritas that another USPS worker has come forward with evidence of fraud and another that Trump-supporting election observers had been prevented from watching the count.
His campaign has filed multiple lawsuits in states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania complaining that its poll watchers were unable to scrutinize the voting process.
Many of those challenges have been tossed out by judges, some within hours of their filing; and again, none of the complaints show any evidence that the outcome of the election was impacted.
In another blow to the Trump campaign earlier on Thursday, an official audit of more than half of Arizona’s counties found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Eight of 15 Arizona counties, including Maricopa – the state’s most populated – turned in hand count results and found ‘no discrepancies.’
And an Arizona judge also blocked ‘evidence’ from being presented by a Trump campaign lawyer, which were affidavits filled out using online forms – which were filled with lies and ‘spam,’ according to Law & Crime.
‘This is concerning,’ said Judge Daniel Kiley of Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. ‘How is this a reliable process of gathering evidence?’
Many of the problems that the Trump campaign has pushed as evidence of fraud are errors and issues that are addressed in every election.
They include problems with signatures, secrecy envelops and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost.
With Biden leading Trump by wide margins in key battleground states, none of those issues would have any impact on the outcome.
Trump has refused to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, alleging widespread voter fraud. In Arizona officials found ‘no discrepancies’ when they audited ballots in more than half the counties, including the largest, Maricopa County
The most powerful Republicans in Washington such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still remain allied with the president on Thursday while others are calling on Trump to treat Democrat Joe Biden like the president-elect he is.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Trump’s reelection, became the latest Republican official to say what Trump and his allies refuse to accept. The GOP governor acknowledged that Biden’s lead is getting ‘bigger and bigger by the day’ and Trump´s legal options are dissipating.
‘Joe Biden is the president-elect, and I think like most Americans, we suspect he´ll be taking the oath of office in January,’ Sununu said, insisting there was no legal fraud in his state, which Biden easily carried.
However, an overwhelming majority of Republican officials who still refuse to publicly accept Biden’s victory.
The resistance is complicating Biden’s effort to lead a smooth transition to the January inauguration, keeping him from the funding and agency resources typically afforded to an incoming administration.
Many Trump allies in Washington see no path to a Trump victory but remain wary of crossing the outgoing Republican president – or his supporters – especially with control of the Senate still uncertain.
Trump turned out a record 72 million voters in the presidential election, which shattered the previous record yet fell 5 million votes short of Biden.
Republican leaders believe they need to keep Trump and his base happy and engaged ahead of two upcoming Georgia runoff elections that will determine the Senate majority.
That’s likely why, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of Biden’s victory, senior Republicans continue to support the president’s claims even as he loses a mounting number of legal challenges.
Official audit of more than half of all of Arizona’s counties find NO evidence of fraud in another blow to Trump campaign – and judge blocks ‘spam’ it is trying to use in court
An official audit of more than half of Arizona’s counties found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in another blow to President Donald Trump’s campaign’s legal and rhetorical push – as President-elect Joe Biden remains ahead.
Eight of 15 Arizona counties, including Maricopa – the state’s most populated – turned in hand count results and found ‘no discrepancies.’
On Thursday, an Arizona judge blocked ‘evidence’ from being presented by a Trump campaign lawyer, which were affidavits filled out using online forms – and were filled with lies and ‘spam,’ according to Law & Crime.
An official audit of more than half of Arizona’s counties, including the most heavily populated Maricopa, found ‘no discrepancies’
Poll workers take a break in Tucson, Arizona during last Tuesday’s general election. An audit found no instances of voter fraud, as President Donald Trump has claimed
Voters in Phoenix, Arizona – which is in Maricopa County – wait to cast their ballots on Election Day, November 3
‘This is concerning,’ said Judge Daniel Kiley of Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. ‘How is this a reliable process of gathering evidence?’
Trump campaign lawyer Kory Langhofer argued that the online forms used CAPTCHA technology – where users have to identify letters, number or sometimes photos, to prove they’ve not bots.
Langhofer said that Trump campaign lawyers then visited witnesses homes – and excluded submissions that included lies.
If the Trump team couldn’t prove an individual was lying they included it in the pile of ‘evidence.’
Kiley, according to Law & Crime, was not convinced.
‘That just shows you cannot disprove what’s asserted,’ he said.
Arizona’s Republican state Attorney General Mark Brnovich poured water on Trump’s allegations of widespread fraud saying to Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Network Wednesday that, ‘There is no evidence, there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change.’
‘It does appear that Joe Biden will win Arizona,’ Brnovich said.
Arizona was called on Election Day by The Associated Press and Fox News Channel, but no major networks have made the call since.
However, the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman, on his popular @Redistrict Twitterfeed, tweeted Wednesday night that there was no path for Trump to take the lead in Arizona.
It’s one of the swing states that the Trump team has targeted in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s presidential election, as the president continues to refuse to concede.
Trump has ranted about widespread voter fraud in key swing states – but has offered no evidence that would overturn the results of the race.
All the major networks called the election Saturday for Biden, first reporting that he had won Pennsylvania and later Nevada, which gave him the needed 270 Electoral College votes.
Kayleigh McEnany appears on Hannity for third night in a row waving MORE affidavits and claiming election fraud – as Pennsylvania judge rules that a small number of ballots be tossed
Kayleigh McEnany appeared on Fox News’ Hannity for the third night in a row waving three binders of affidavits and claiming election fraud, as Donald Trump was handed a minor legal victory in Pennsylvania.
The White House Press Secretary leveled fresh allegations of voter fraud Thursday night, claiming voters were subject to separate voting systems in parts of Pennsylvania depending on whether they were in red or blue counties.
McEnany claimed this led to ‘potentially tens of thousands of ballots’ being wrongly counted as she waved three binders of documents in the air, said to contain sworn statements from GOP poll watchers.
Her claims come as the Trump campaign celebrated a small win Thursday when a Pennsylvania judge ruled that a small number of ballots be tossed. The votes relate to people who missed a deadline to validate their ID.
However the ruling will do nothing to change Joe Biden’s 60,000-plus lead in the state as the ballots in question had already not been counted in official numbers.
Trump continues to refuse to concede, filing multiple legal challenges to have votes thrown out in states where Biden soared to victory.
So far, several of the claims have fallen short with a 94-year-old woman coming forward to say she cast one of the ballots Trump claims was cast by a dead person.
Two of the star GOP witnesses have also courted controversy with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s first witness turning out to be a convicted child sex offender. Meanwhile a Michigan mailman who filed an affidavit saying he overheard a conversation about backdating ballots later admitted to investigators he ‘put two and two together’ and made assumptions.
Kayleigh McEnany appeared on Fox News’ Hannity for the third night in a row waving three binders of affidavits and claiming election fraud, as Donald Trump was handed a minor legal victory in Pennsylvania
Speaking to Sean Hannity, a close ally of Trump, Thursday night, McEnany alleged that voting rules had been different in Pennsylvania counties depending on whether the counties were Republican or Democrat.
‘Voting is a fundamental right and that means there has to be uniform standards throughout the state of Pennsylvania, but what we saw here and we have the evidence to prove it is this, there was one system for Democrat counties, there was another system for Republican counties,’ she said.
‘You had the courts in Pennsylvania saying there’s no way to fix your mail-in ballot in advance, except as we have now found out in seven Democrat counties.’
McEnany claimed voters in Democrat counties were warned if their ballot had been canceled so they could fix it in advance while voters in Republican counties learned after the voting deadline had been and gone.
‘We have text messages that I provided your producers, emails that are in our affidavits sworn that show that Democrat voters were being contacted – in some cases by Democrat campaigners – and they were voters in Democrat counties, they were contacted saying ‘your ballot has been canceled, you need to come fix it’,’ she said.
‘We have other affidavits that people in Republican leaning counties that say tonight I voted for 15 years, 15 years absentee, I want to turn in my ballot and was informed after the election it was canceled with no opportunity to fix it in advance.’
McEnany also added another allegation that votes missing signatures, dates, and addresses were counted in Democrat counties as well.
‘This is an equal protection violation and Sean let me add one more thing that is a new part of our filing tonight,’ she said.
‘We believe in the accounting process, that the ballots without signatures, dates, and addresses which are required by law were counted in some Democrat counties but not in some Republican counties.’
The press secretary said this ‘would amount to potentially tens of thousands of ballots that were counted improperly’.
The Philadelphia Convention center where votes were being counted. The Trump campaign celebrated a small win Thursday when a Pennsylvania judge ruled that a small number of ballots be tossed. The votes relate to people who missed a deadline to validate their ID
McEnany did not provide any evidence to back up her claims but proudly waved three binders in the air.
‘I have three binders. These are court filings and affidavits – they are startling Sean,’ she told Hannity.
She went on to hit out at the Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar calling her an ‘avowed anti-Trump leftist’ and claiming the election was ‘rigged’ from the outset.
Boockvar had tried to extend the deadline for people needing to validate their IDs against state records from Monday November 9 to Thursday November 13.
Commonwealth Court President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt ruled against Boockvar and in favor of Trump Thursday, meaning anyone who missed Monday’s deadline will have their votes thrown out.
‘What was she doing in advance? Telling the Supreme Court we won’t count these ballots, we will put them to the side of they come in three days late then changing her guidance,’ fumed McEnany, adding that the ruling was ‘a big victory for the Trump campaign’.
It is not clear how many American’s votes were impacted by the ruling but it won’t make a dent in Biden’s victory.
The votes in question had not yet been included in the state’s official tally so his 60,233 current lead remains untouched.
This didn’t stop both McEnany and Trump counsel Matt Morgan celebrating the ruling, however, with Morgan telling reporters it was ‘a win for the Trump campaign and voters alike.’
Pennsylvania flipped blue for Biden last week after it turned in 2016 for the first time since 1948.