Breaking from his regular post-election schedule of tweeting and playing golf, President Donald Trump took time Sunday morning to call into Maria Bartiromo’s show on Fox News to rehash many of the warmed-over conspiracy theories – happy post-Thanksgiving! – he has touted about why he lost the 2020 race to President-elect Joe Biden.
Bartiromo, who was once a serious and credible journalist, offered little in the way of, you know, facts to dispute Trump’s entirely false and disproven claims. Which, in turn, allowed the President to make more and more outlandish claims. (Note: He did not claim that he had invented the question mark.)
I went through the transcript of the “interview.” The lines you need to see are below.
1. “You have leaders of countries that call me, say, that’s the most messed-up election we have ever seen.”
Really? Leaders of foreign countries are calling Trump and saying that the 2020 election is “the most messed-up” one that they have seen? Who, you ask? Oh, Trump didn’t name any names. And away we go!
2. “They had glitches. You know what a glitch is. That’s – a glitch is supposed to be when a machine breaks down.”
“We fixed the glitch.” – The Bobs
3. “We had glitches where they moved thousands of votes from my account to Biden’s account. And these are glitches. So, they’re not glitches. They’re theft. They’re fraud, absolute fraud.”
NOPE!
4. “I think we caught four or five glitches of about 5,000 votes each, and different states. And, again, they’re not glitches.”
False.
5. “And what happened, if you watched the election, I was called by the biggest people, saying, congratulations, political people. Congratulations, sir. You just won the election. It was 10:00.”
The “biggest people” called at 10 p.m. EST to congratulate Trump on winning a second term? These “biggest people” must be unaware of how elections work.
6. “And then they did dumps. They call them dumps, big, massive dumps, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and all over.”
“Dumps” are rightly understood as areas with large populations – mostly in cities – reporting their votes.
7. “And they did these massive dumps of votes. And all of a sudden, I went from winning by a lot to losing by a little.”
Stay with me on this: In cities where lots of people live and where Trump is not popular, he lost by large margins. Those large margins for Biden helped offset Trump’s wins in rural, less populated areas in these swing states. Which is how elections, um, work.
8. “I said, well, I hear bad things about the machines. I hear bad things about corruption.”
[nods head knowingly … looks around to see if anyone else is nodding]
9. “But even worse, dead people were applying to get a ballot. They were making application to get ballots, many. And, you know, we’re not talking about 10 people. We’re talking – there are a lot of dead people that so-called voted in this election.”
10. “And how the FBI and Department of Justice – I don’t know. Maybe they are involved. But how people are allowed to get away from this stuff – with this stuff is unbelievable.”
OK, wait. So, the FBI and the Department of Justice – run by Trump loyalist Bill Barr – may well be in on this plot to steal the election from Trump? This thing goes deeper than any of us thought!
11. “I mean, you’re doing something. You’re actually very brave, because you’re doing something.”
“Brave” is not the word I would have chosen for Bartiromo’s role in this interview …
12. “This is the greatest fraud in the history of our country, from an electoral standpoint. And I guess you could build it up bigger than an electoral stand – what’s bigger from an electoral standpoint? What is bigger than this?”
Even when it comes to false claims of fraud, Trump has to be No. 1.
13. “Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes. Now, we were – we were planning – we – I got 63 million votes four years ago and won quite handily in the Electoral College, won quite handily. We did very well. I got 63.”
Biden didn’t get 80 million votes … he got 80,259,147 – and counting.
14. “I’m telling you, at 10:00, everybody thought it was over.”
[narrator voice] They didn’t.
15. “We are trying. We have so much evidence.”
“Trump Lawyer to Pennsylvania Judge: Nope, I’ve Got No Evidence of Voter Fraud”
16. “You know, the poll watchers – and this is true with all of the states, just about, that you’re talking about, I think all of them. They weren’t allowed to have poll watchers.”
17. “And from what everybody is saying, and from what – I don’t think we even have to prove this.”
“I don’t think we even have to prove this” – the President of the United States, claiming widespread voter fraud and a rigged election.
18. “They say that I was doing so much better than they thought that they panicked, and they started just doing ballot after ballot very quickly and just checking the Biden name on top. They didn’t have time.”
“They.”
19. “I would like to file one nice, big, beautiful lawsuit, talking about this and many other things, with tremendous proof.”
“Big, Beautiful Lawsuit” was the name of my high school band. We were extremely litigious.
20. “And they had electoral officials making deals, like this character in Georgia, who is a disaster. And the governor’s done nothing. He’s done absolutely nothing. I’m ashamed that I endorsed him.”
In which Trump attacks the Republican secretary of state and Republican governor of Georgia because, uh, they won’t say he actually carried the state? Or something? Also, here’s Trump on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp two weeks before the November election: “Brian Kemp, and he’s a really smart guy, a really good guy and I endorse him and he went on to win and his wonderful wife, Marty, is even better than him.” So, yeah.
21. “Joe Biden did not get 16 million more votes than Barack Hussein Obama. He didn’t get it.”
Trump’s proof for this claim? Are you new here? None! Also, the not-even-a-dog-whistle of “Hussein” thrown in for good measure!
22. “There are so many different things.”
So true.
23. “They watch the votes being counted. It’s so important. It is, like, the most important. Otherwise, people will cheat, unfortunately.”
This is the President of the United States. Speaking about poll watching. Which is “like, the most important.”
24. “Everyone knows that the poll watchers were thrown out of buildings.”
25. “When they are voting for dead people, and when dead people are signing applications, meaning they’re not, meaning somebody else is fraudulently signing, I mean, in the name of a dead person, well, that tells you a lot.”
26. “Well, how come there are thousands of dead people voting?”
[narrator voice] There weren’t.
27. “Missing in action. Can’t tell you where they are. I ask, are they looking at it? Everyone says, yes, they’re looking at it.”
This is Trump on his own Department of Justice. Which has, largely, done his bidding since Barr was appointed as attorney general. Of course, nothing is ever enough for Trump. Ever.
28. “And what happened to Durham? Where’s Durham?”
29.” And I know FBI.”
“I know FBI.” – the President of the United States.
30. “You would think, if you’re in the FBI or Department of Justice, this is – this is the biggest thing you could be looking at. Where are they? I have not seen anything. I mean, I just – they just keep moving along, and they go on to the next president.”
Again, Bill Barr, the head of the Department of Justice, was appointed by Donald Trump.
31. “But many ballots – many ballots with the name Trump on were thrown out. You have read that. They found ballots in a river with the name Trump on from the military. They were signed. And they were floating in a river.”
Trump has seized on this story as evidence of widespread voter fraud. The incident, which happened in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, involved a total of nine ballots. And local officials determined it was an error made by a “temporary seasonal independent contractor.”
32. “It was a Russia, Russia hoax. It was just pure hoax. It was a pure hoax and a very – a very sad thing for the country.”
“Over the course of my career I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious.” – Special Counsel Robert Mueller
33. “If I wasn’t here, Antifa would be running this country right now. They’d be running the country.”
Uh, what?
34. “And if I’m not here – I’m sort of your wall. You know, we’re completing the wall, like I said I would. Everyone said, you would never be able to do it.”
So, the wall was Trump all along? This was all a huge metaphor? World rocked.
35. “We could have a great case. We do have a great case. We have the greatest case ever.”
“The greatest case ever.”
36. “I came up with vaccines that people didn’t think we’d have for five years. And we have them.”
Trump came up with the Covid-19 vaccines? I had not heard that!
37. “We’re doing better than the rest of the world. We’re doing better.”
As of Monday morning, the US had more than 13 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and nearly 267,000 deaths from the virus. Both are the most in the world.
38. “But actually, I watched – I watched a few of the shows last night. I got to see a couple of them.”
39. “Sean Hannity, he knows. He gets it. He gets it.”
Uh huh.
40. “In other words, my mind will not change in six months. There was tremendous cheating here.”
In other other words: He’s never conceding. This feels like a good place to end.
