Two days after supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2o21, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account. The decision was due to their “Glorification of Violence policy, which aims to prevent the glorification of violence that could inspire others to replicate violent acts,” drawing a direct connection between them and the Capitol riot and concern of further unrest.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained that, while he believed the decision to be right, was concerned about the precedent such a ban might create.
On January 6, 2020, the US Senate was scheduled to certify Electoral College votes, cementing Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. The routine process takes approximately half an hour to complete. Instead, it was interrupted by a mob that overtook the Capitol itself, incited by months of unproven allegations of mass voter fraud.
US Capitol in the evening of January 6, 2021
After months of fraud allegations and over 60 failed lawsuits, Trump delivered a speech on the morning of the 6th in which he refused to concede and promised to join his supporters in a march on the Capitol.
Rudy Giuliani, head of Trump’s legal team, also demanded “trial by combat.”
In the afternoon, Trump supporters began marching to “Stop the Steal.” A noose was erected outside Capitol grounds.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP – Getty Images
Protesters approached the Capitol, breaking through barriers and attacking media present, destroying their equipment.
Even as the protests around the Capitol escalated into riots, Trump fomented his supporters’ anger via Twitter, reiterating past claims that Pence could overturn the Electoral College results. The tweets were removed and his account suspended. Facebook soon followed with a suspension of their own.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters clashed with police and overran the Capitol grounds. In one instance, they replaced the US flag with a Trump flag.
As the violence escalated with police outside, Trump’s supporters breached the building itself, smashing windows and breaking through the main door. Instigated by Trump’s remarks about Pence’s unwillingness to overturn the election, they chanted “hang Mike Pence.”
Congress was evacuated in the middle of their session and taken to a secure location.
While the legislature was evacuated, guards were in an armed standoff at the entrance of the House chamber.
Capitol police ceded most of the building. Trump’s supporters’ occupation marked the first time since the War of 1812 that the Capitol had been seized by a hostile force. Offices were ransacked, while people recorded themselves going through computers and documents. One man was photographed shortly before 2PM, shouting that Trump had won the election in the House chamber. Two hours later another was photographed parading a Confederate battle flag through the halls.
They’re in the chamber. One is up on the dais yelling “Trump won that election!” This is insane pic.twitter.com/p6CXhBDSFT
During the four years of the Civil War, the confederates never got closer to Washington than Fort Stevens. Until today, when insurrectionist supporters of @realDonaldTrump paraded through the U.S. Capitol Building carrying the Confederate battle flag. pic.twitter.com/mPye0ziVlj
Police were eventually able to clear the Capitol, and the city of Washington DC instituted a 6PM curfew. By the end of the night, over 50 officers were injured, with over 60 arrests. A woman attempting to forcibly gain access to a barricaded area was shot and killed. She was later identified as an Air Force veteran of 14 years and a QAnon supporter. Over the course of the day, three others died, attributed to medical emergencies; one was reportedly the result of a man accidentally tazing himself and subsequently suffering a heart attack. That evening, Capitol officer Brian D. Sicknick succumbed to injuries sustained during the riots.
Once the Capitol was secured, the Senate resumed the certification of electoral college votes. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced any further intervention in the election results by Congress, saying “it would damage our republic forever.”
While Mitt Romney accused Trump of inciting the riots and Linsdey Graham forcefully asserted that Biden was the lawful winner of the election, not all Senate Republicans agreed. Matt Gaetz baselessly alleged that the rioters were actually Antifa agent provocateurs.
An objection to certifying Georgia’s election results was dismissed after Senators withdrew support because of the day’s events.
Ultimately, at near 4AM, the process concluded and Pence announced that Biden was in fact the winner, and would be the next President of the United States.
On the evening of Election Day on November 3, 2020, Trump announced victory. However, over the next four days, Biden pulled ahead in several battleground states until his victory was announced on November 7. The Trump campaign launched a series of lawsuits alleging mass fraud across the nation.
The Claims
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lead lawyer, held a press conference at Four Seasons to highlight claims of fraud and their upcoming legal battles. The primary assertion was that fraud likely took place because of an influx of mail-in ballot votes, and a supposed lack of access by the Republican poll watchers for oversight in vote counting. Giuliani claimed that there had also been thousands of votes from deceased that were improperly counted.
The conference became notable for its location at Four Seasons Landscaping, and for taking place during the announcement that Biden had won. Situated next to a sex shop and crematorium, it was suspected that the location was booked in error, and was intended to be at a Four Seasons hotel. At the time the press conference was taking place, Trump was playing golf. It was then that Biden was announced the winner:
In another press conference on November 19, Giuliani reiterated his claims about fraud and the lack of adequate oversight from poll watchers, referencing the film My Cousin Vinny to make his case.
During the conference, Sidney Powell, another senior Trump lawyer, announced suits in Georgia and Michigan against Dominion, which provided substantial voting infrastructure across the country. Powell also alleged a global communist conspiracy behind the fraud. She was soon after dismissed from the legal team.
The lawsuits asserted a variety of claims. Examples included:
Mail-in ballots that hadn’t been accurately signed and marked on the outside
Mail-in ballots not in their original envelopes
Non-uniform curing, or fixing of ballot mistakes, being unconstitutional
State guidances on mail-in voting
Multiple votes from the same individuals
More votes than the voting population of the corresponding district
Higher rates of machines rejections for Republican ballots
“Over votes” from the use of Sharpies and its bleed through the paper
The Results
Trump’s legal team sought to delay or prevent certification of election results in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada. Certification is the legal process by which states officially submit their results, with deadlines defined by state law.
None of the suits were allowed to prevent certification. The one victory the Trump team achieved – the exclusion of votes in Pennsylvania which were too few to have any influence – was reversed by the state’s Supreme Court. In another instance, the Trump legal team spent $3 million for a recount in a Wisconsin county, only for more Biden votes to be discovered.
By the time a month had passed from the election, with 10 cases still pending, the Trump campaign had won zero out of 32 suits. While the campaign pledged more, the judges’ opinions on many of the dismissed suits – including by judges appointing by Trump – gave clear pictures of how little basis the suits had. One Michigan judge deemed the provided proof as “inadmissible hearsay within hearsay.” A Georgia judge said another suit “would breed confusion and disenfranchisement.” A Pennsylvania judge said of yet another suit, “This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.”
Transition & Certification
For three weeks after the election, the administration refused to begin the transition process to the President-elect. However, on November 24, head of the General Services Administration Emily W. Murphy confirmed that she would approve the formal transition process, freeing federal money and allowing security briefings for the Biden team.
On December 1, Attorney General Bill Barr said if there was fraud, there wasn’t enough to change the results of the election. This marked a notable shift for Barr, who had provided Trump legal cover through the Mueller investigation and impeachment over Ukrainian quid-pro-quo. Others who had contradicted Trump’s claims of voter fraud, including the head of the organization responsible for election security, were fired.
By the time a month had passed from the election, all of the battleground states in question had been certified.
The Tweetstorm
Over the course of the month following the election, Trump tweeted dozens of unfounded claims about mass fraud, all flagged by Twitter. While the following are examples of claims about victory, poll observers, fake news, rigging, and individual states, each were reiterated by Trump several times on Twitter.
THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!
What does GSA being allowed to preliminarily work with the Dems have to do with continuing to pursue our various cases on what will go down as the most corrupt election in American political history? We are moving full speed ahead. Will never concede to fake ballots & “Dominion”.
Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!
The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the recount is over, on Monday or Tuesday. We have found many illegal votes. Stay tuned!
Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a “goldmine” of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state….
Two weeks after the 2020 election, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Chris Krebs was fired by Trump for contradicting the President’s claims of mass fraud.
Christopher Krebs, former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Wikipedia
CISA, an organization created by legislation signed by Trump, sought to ensure the integrity of the election, and after announced it to be among the most secure in American history. It also sought to dispel rumors and conspiracy theories directly on its website’s “rumor control” page. Many of these had been spread by Trump himself, who attacked Krebs on Twitter.
The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed…
On the day of his ousting, head of the CISA Chris Krebs also noted on Twitter that such claims were in every case “unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent,” and said of his agency, “we did it right.”
ICYMI: On allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, "in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent." #Protect2020https://t.co/Oj6NciYruD
Trump went on to “hereby claim” Michigan, which was won by opponent Biden.
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,…..
Two days after the election, Trump reiterated his claims about mass fraud in a conference, while litigation his campaign advanced in swing states of Georgia and Michigan had already been thrown out.
In October, 2020, a Dutch security expert announced that he had been able to guess Trump’s Twitter password, “maga2020!”. Without any two-factor authentication, he was able to immediately gain full access to the account. He immediately contacted the US’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) about the matter, and Trump’s password was soon after changed.
The same expert claims to have accessed Trump’s Twitter in 2016, guessing the password “yourefired”.
Twitter responded by saying, “We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today.” Neither Trump or his campaign had any comment. A week later, The Republican Party announced that hackers had stolen over $2 million from Trump’s campaign.
On October 16, 2020, Trump tweeted a story from a satire site which claimed that Twitter shut itself down to slow the spread of negative news about opponent Joe Biden.
Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News https://t.co/JPmjOrKPcr via @TheBabylonBee Wow, this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T
After seeing account after account tweet out one particularly bad story, CEO Jack Dorsey realized he had to take action. Dorsey smashed a glass box in his office reading “Break In Case Of Bad Publicity For Democrats.” Inside the case was a sledgehammer for smashing Twitter’s servers.
“Red alert — shut the servers down! Shut them all down!”
The Babylon Bee’s Twitter responded to Trump’s support.
President Trump Declares The Babylon Bee His Most-Trusted News Source https://t.co/oObdxaH3w6
On October 13, 2020, Trump retweeted a QAnon conspiracy that claimed that Barack Obama and Joe Biden faked Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011. The account he retweeted was soon after deleted.
Trump also retweeted a video that claimed Iran was paid off to safely transfer bin Laden to Pakistan for Obama’s “trophy kill.”
On March 6, 2019, Trump referred to the CEO of Apple as “Tim Apple.”
Trump defended the mistake by saying it was done intentionally to save time.
At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!
Trump also called national security advisor John Bolton “Mike Bolton,” Vice President Mike Pence “Mike Pounce,” and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan “Ron.”
On October 9, 2020, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, “Trump might be ridiculous for the rest of the world, but he is sane and wise man for the Taliban.”
Mujahid explained their support: “We hope he will win the election and wind up U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. When we heard about Trump being COVID-19 positive, we got worried for his health, but seems he is getting better.”
Two days prior to the endorsement, Trump tweeted that all remaining US personnel in Afghanistan should be home by Christmas.
We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!
