President Donald Trump issued a dark election eve prediction about a Supreme Court ruling that could cost him votes in Pennsylvania – claiming it will lead to ‘violence in the streets.’
The president made the claim in a tweet Monday, just hours before the first in-person election day votes were to be cast, after suffering a legal setback in the Keystone State days ago. He followed up with his most direct statement yet about taking legal action, saying his lawyers will be ‘fighting.’
In a stunning public statement by a sitting president, Trump said the decision by the high court will ‘induce violence in the streets.’ The tweet came amid preparations at the White House and in Washington for potential blowback in the event of a contested election.
‘The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one,’ President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday
‘The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets,’ Trump tweeted.
‘Something must be done!’ he added, without explanation.
His tweet came amid intense focus on Pennsylvania – a state that could put rival Joe Biden over the edge in securing the needed 270 electoral votes to capture the presidency, if he holds Hillary Clinton’s states and recaptures midwest battlegrounds where he is leading in the polls.
At a rally in Wisconsin late Monday, Trump continued his attacks while urging his own supporters to vote in-person.
‘Early is good. Ballot is not good,’ he said. ‘We got a very horrible, horrible ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States, he told supporters in Kenosha.
Twitter slapped a warning label on Trump’s tweet after he wrote that a Supreme Court decision on Pennsylvania wiill ‘induce violence’
He termed it ‘a ruling that puts our country in danger, actually.’
‘On Pennsylvania they have so much time to do this thing. Oh – let them put their votes in and give them plenty of time,’ Trump said, using a sarcastic voice. ‘You know we have a date it’s called November third. We don’t have a date that says many days later. We don’t have a date that says you’re allowed to go and start putting your vote in later and we can tabulate it later take your time.’
‘There’s danger that there’s a lot of shenanigans that go on from that time forth,’ he said.
‘There’s a lot of bad things that can happen with the streets. You’re going to have a population that’s going to be a very, very angry and you just can’t do that,’ Trump said.
‘That is such a dangerous decision. That is such a disappointment when I heard that decision,’ Trump said. He also called it a ‘political decision,’ and indicated some hesitation about attacking the court publicly, although he has done so on prior rulings against him.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t be speaking this way. I’m very disappointed on behalf of this country that a thing like this could happen,’ he said.
He also indicated in his most direct terms he will be dispatching lawyers to the state, perhaps in hope of getting another chance at a ruling now that new Justice Amy Coney Barrett has joined the court.
‘Hopefully their wisdom will prevail and they’ll do something. And lawyers will be going in and they’ll be fighting,’ Trump said.
On Monday evening the attorney general of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was criticized on social media after claiming that Trump cannot win in his state, just over 24 hours before the polls close on Election Day.
‘If all the votes are added up in PA, Trump is going to lose,’ Shapiro wrote on Twitter.
‘That’s why he’s working overtime to subtract as many votes as possible from this process.
‘For the record, he’s 0-6 against us in court,’ the attorney general added. ‘We’ve protected voting rights. Now, ignore the noise—vote!’
There have been some government preparations for potential violence – although none connected to a 4-4 deadlocked court decision that went against the president in Pennsylvania. Other decisions, including one in battleground Wisconsin, have gone Trump’s way, while a Texas court ruled against conservative activists in Texas.
Federal officials were expected to reinstall a ‘non-scalable’ fence around the perimeter of the White House on Monday, and some commercial buildings nearby have boarded up windows.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is telling voters in his state it may take ‘even a few days’ to count their votes in a new public service-style ad – as the looming legal battle over the count there takes on a new PR dimension.
‘These are unprecedented times. Because of the coronavirus, there were millions of votes cast by mail so it may take longer than usual to count every vote,’ he says in a new ad for the nonpartisan group, The Voter Project.
‘The folks in our election offices – your neighbors, family and friends are working hard ensuring every single vote is counted,’ he says.
CNN reports it will air Election Day through the final count – after the Supreme Court ruled Pennsylvania can continue counting mail ballots for three days after Election Day.
‘It may take longer than usual to count every vote,’ Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is telling residents in an ad paid for by a nonprofit
‘So it may take a little longer than we’re used to, even a few days, but that’s okay,’ Wolf reassures, ‘because it’s critical that your vote is counted — and it will be.’
President Donald Trump has repeatedly demand the nation learn the results of the election on the night of Election Day – even as states contend with a crush of mail-in ballots due to procedural changes and the coronavirus.
And he blasted the Supreme Court for refusing to revisit a 4-4 decision that allows county officials to count votes postmarked by Election Day for three days afterward.
‘I think it was a terrible decision for our country. And I think it was a very dangerous decision for our country,’ Trump on Sunday.
President Donald Trump is demanding a result on election night
Joe Biden has been campaigning repeatedly and leads in most polls there
A voter arrives to drop off he ballot during early voting in Allentown, Pennsylvania on October 29, 2020
These are a portion of the 200,000 mail-in and absentee ballots that have arrived at the Allegheny County Election Division that are kept in a secure area at the Elections warehouse in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020
‘Because you’re going to have one or two or three states, depending on how it ends up, where they’re tabulating ballots and the rest of the world is waiting to find out. And I think there’s great danger to it, and I think a lot of fraud and misuse can take place. I think it’s a terrible decision by the Supreme Court. A terrible decision.’
‘Now, I don’t know if that’s going to be changed, because we’re going to go in night of, as soon as that election is over, we’re going in with our lawyers,’ Trump vowed.
‘I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait a long period of time after the election. Should’ve gotten their ballots in a long time before that. Could’ve gotten their ballots in a month ago. I think it’s a ridiculous decision.’
Pennsylvania state law prohibits the counting to begin until Election Day.
Trump has repeatedly demanded that the nation get a result on the night Election Day.
‘The Election should end on November 3rd., not weeks later!’ he tweeted Friday.
Trump said at the White House last week: ‘It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3rd, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don’t believe that that’s by our laws,’ he said.
Despite the legal saber rattling, there was not a single challenge to one of the 1.2 million ballots cast by mail in Philadelphia or its surrounding suburbs, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday, the deadline for making a challenge.
Pennsylvania is a critical state in both candidates’ plans, although a Monmouth University poll put Biden ahead by a margin of 51 to 44 in Monday. Biden’s average lead is 4 percentage points, and both candidates were stumping there on Monday.
It isn’t just the crush of mail-in ballots that will contribute to a delayed result.
Seven Republican counties with a combined 150,000 votes won’t begin counting until the day after Election Day, NBC News reported.
Trump has regularly gone after Wolf, as he did at a rally in the state last week.
‘The governor counts the ballots,’ Trump said, conflating him with county election officials who do count the votes in a process that lets both parties observe. ‘This is the guy that’s counting our ballots? It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.’
In fact, county officials conduct the count.
Axios reported over the weekend that Trump plans to declare victory if he’s ‘ahead’ in key states like Pennsylvania. Election experts are predicting a red ‘mirage’ in Pennsylvania and other states – where Trump appears to be up among the first votes to get counted (those cast on Election Day) while the Biden count comes in more slowly.
This would be the backdrop for any demand to challenge mail ballots or demand a stop to the count.