Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared taken aback as he learned during a press conference in Philadelphia that TV networks had called the presidential election for Joe Biden on Saturday morning.
Taking a question from a reporter, the former New York City Mayor initially looked confused about ‘the call’ before asking, ‘Who was it called by?’
When he heard ‘all the networks’ had awarded Biden Pennsylvania‘s 20 electoral college votes, he quickly regained his composure, taking on a sarcastic tone and looking around to his team saying ‘oh my goodness!’
He repeated that the Trump campaign would continue to fight the result as he said: ‘Networks don’t get to decide elections, courts do.’
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Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to Trump, gestures after media announced that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has won the 2020 election
‘All the networks, we have to forget about the law, judges don’t count. All the networks. All the networks,’ he mocked, looking to the sky and raising his arms upward.
‘All the networks thought Biden was going to win by ten percent. Gee, what happened?’
He was then asked whether the team would be able to change the result as it stands now through the courts.
‘Of course!’ he claimed. ‘Courts set aside elections if they’re illegal.
‘In this particular case, I don’t know if there’s enough evidence to set aside the entire election – certainly not across the entire country – maybe in Pennsylvania.
‘However, there certainly is enough evidence to disqualify a certain number of ballots,’ he alleged.
‘The ballots that were not properly inspected should be thrown out and that number of ballots should be taken out of the count. That could affect the election.’
Giuliani and the rest of Trump’s legal team were holding the press conference Saturday as they announced that they intended to press on with Trump’s election challenge, oblivious to Pennsylvania, and the presidency, already having been called for Biden.
‘He’s not going to concede when at least 600,000 ballots are in question,’ Giuliani said.
Rudy Giuliani slammed the call and declared that ‘networks don’t get to decide elections’
A Trump fan in Philadelphia screams at supporters of Biden across the road after news media named the former Vice President the winner of the election on Saturday morning
Trump supporters stand outside as attorney for the President Rudy Giuliani speaks at a news conference in the parking lot of a landscaping company in Philadelphia
The Trump campaign has lodged multiple complaints about the vote count in the state with Giuliani on Saturday claiming that poll workers ‘were uniformly deprived of their right to inspect any part of the mail-in ballots’.
He was joined by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski as they alleged that Philadelphia has a ‘sad history of voter fraud’ and that multiple ballots with the names of people who were deceased had been cast.
‘Will Smith’s father has voted here twice since he has died,’ Giuliani said. ‘I don’t know who he voted for because the vote is secret. In Philadelphia they keep the votes of dead people secret.’
‘The same thing was done in Georgia, the same thing was done in Michigan, the same thing was done in North Carolina,’ the former mayor continued.
‘Seems to me somebody from the DNC sent out a note saying don’t let the Republicans look at those mail in ballots, at least not in the big democratic hack cities that we control.’
Giuliani initially appeared perplexed as he learned during a press conference about the call
A Trump supporter stands outside looking through a fence at Giuliani’s press conference
‘This is not anecdotal,’ added Lewandowski. ‘This is hard evidence and if you do your jobs from the media and you will find additional examples.’
They offered no proof of the allegations but said a lawsuit would be launched by the campaign on Monday.
The state appeared to have won the presidency for Biden on Saturday as he took a narrow 0.5 percent lead, equating to 28,800 votes out of more than 6.5 million cast.
Trump spent Saturday morning tweeting and on the golf course as he lost Pennsylvania, the state he desperately needed in order to secure a second term.
One hearing that it had been called for Biden, the President again fumed of cheating.
He argued in his statement Saturday: ‘In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.’
Security personnel direct a member of the media as Rudy Giuliani speaks from the Trump legal team after news media named Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden the winner
Giuliani claimed that it was not the end and the Trump campaign would fight the result
Giuliani addresses the media with the Trump legal team on Saturday afternoon
Trump participates in a round of golf as his rival Biden was announced as the new president
But Trump’s campaign lawyer conceded to a Philadelphia judge on Thursday that the president’s team did have election observers in the room to watch mail-in ballots be counted in Pennsylvania.
‘I’m sorry, then what’s your problem?’ said U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond, a President George W. Bush appointee, after Trump lawyers conceded that observers had been admitted to the facility.
The Trump campaign was trying to get an injunction to halt vote counting in Philadelphia, a heavily Democratic area that was expected to add to Biden’s vote total.
They argued their observers had been unfairly barred from parts of the city’s ballot-counting area inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
But, under questioning, Trump lawyer Jerome Marcus conceded: ‘There’s a non-zero number of people in the room.’
Diamond urged the Trump campaign and the Philadelphia election board to come to a resolution. The two parties ultimately agreed that a fixed number of observers from each campaign — up to sixty — could be admitted, according to NPR.
The Trump’s campaign suit was then dismissed as moot.
Pennsylvania could still be heading for a recount, which state law requires in elections that are decided by 0.5 percent of the vote or less.
A lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Republican Party, based on a state court’s ruling on the validity of late mail-in ballots, is also likely headed to the Supreme Court.