In his first speech since the election on Tuesday, President Donald Trump gave a controversial speech from the White House, which caused many networks to cut their coverage prematurely after he claimed that he would win the election if the “legal” votes were counted.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said.

This was the moment that some networks, including MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, and NPR, decided to cut their coverage of the speech prematurely.

MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR all cut off Trump’s broadcast, stopping the spread of his disinformation-filled speech.

Tech is fed up. The media is fed up. America is fed up. https://t.co/zUQbFOKmqF

— Tiffany C. Li (@tiffanycli) November 6, 2020

“If you count the votes that came in late, we’re looking to them very strongly, but a lot of votes came in late,” Trump said.

Considering the conditions with so many mail-in ballots, it was expected that many of them would come in late.

Biden also spoke on Thursday, called for patience and calm, and also expressed confidence in his victory.

“In America, the vote is sacred. It’s how the people of this nation express their will. And it is the will of the voters, no one — and not anything else — that chooses the president of the United States,” he said.

“So each ballot must be counted and that’s what is going on now. And that’s how it should be. Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience. But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world,” he continued.

Fellow Republicans continue to break with Trump on the issue of mail-in ballot counting, including Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president.

“Counting every vote is at the heart of democracy. That process is often long and, for those running, frustrating. The votes will be counted. If there are irregularities alleged, they will be investigated and ultimately resolved in the courts. Have faith in our democracy, in our Constitution, and in the American people,” Romney said in a statement.

Trump did not accept any questions after his speech on Thursday, although plenty were asked in the few seconds that it took for him to leave the room. One journalist asked Trump if he was being a “sore loser.”

“Are you being a sore loser?” — @Acosta asks Trump as he exits.
(Note: Trump’s exit is the only clip of that lie-filled speech we will tweet.) pic.twitter.com/MS8TdICwZM

— The Recount (@therecount) November 6, 2020

 

NBC later released the following fact-checked video of the speech:

Results in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania are still being determined, but following a press conference in Philadelphia on Wednesday where Eric Trump and Rudy Guiliani declared victory for the Trump administration, fact-checkers have published rebukes of many of their statements, saying that the press conference was filled with inaccuracies and misinformation. Despite the pushback from allies, media, and judges, the Trump campaign and Trump family have continued to insist that there has been widespread voter fraud.

Donald Trump Jr took to Twitter on Thursday to express frustration about the election results, in which his father has fallen behind. In what many have called an irresponsible tweet, Trump Jr told his audience that “the best thing for America’s future” is for his father to go to “total war” over the election.

“It’s time to clean up this mess & stop looking like a banana republic!” he said.

Twitter flagged the tweet a few minutes after it was posted for violating its “Civic integrity policy.”

The tweet comes as the Trump campaign is contesting election results in numerous battleground states, demanding recounts in some areas and calling on polls to stop counting in others. The campaign has faced heavy criticism over its moves to contest the election, even from many long-time allies.

If Biden does end up winning the election, the Trump family will face more restrictions on Twitter if they continue to get in trouble for their posts. According to a report this week from Bloomberg, Twitter confirmed that Trump’s account will fall under the same rules as everyone else when he leaves office.

He is currently given a pass for violating Twitter’s rules because the company feels that world leaders should have their views on record so they can be judged accordingly. If he breaks Twitter’s rules too often, which includes inciting violence or spreading misinformation, Trump could see his account banned or heavily restricted.

“A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable. With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement.

“It’s preserving a record of what is said in the public interest,” said Vijaya Gadde, a lawyer for Twitter previously said.

On Wednesday, Twitter labeled five of President Donald Trump’s tweets as “disputed” and possibly “misleading.”

Twitter attached labels to the tweets saying that “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”

Eric Trump faced embarrassment after sharing a post that was later shown to be fake. The video showed someone burning ballots, but ballots that were shown burning on camera were merely sample ballots, and the video appeared to be staged.

The Trump campaign continues to insist that the Democrats were cheating, and is promising legal battles every step of the way. However, in many states where lawsuits have been filed, judges have rejected them, including Michigan, where they wanted the counting to stop entirely until they were able to send someone to oversee the process. However, it looks like the lawsuit in Michigan will be going nowhere, and Joe Biden has been called as the projected winner.

Meanwhile, a Georgia judge dismissed a similar lawsuit from Trump’s campaign on Thursday, ruling that there was no evidence that ballots being processed in Chatham County had been received after 7 p.m. on Election Day.

On Wednesday, officials with Donald Trump’s election campaign began contesting election results in key states that are needed for either candidate to win. The campaign threatened lawsuits in numerous states, including Michigan, where they wanted the counting to stop entirely until they were able to send someone to oversee the process. However, it looks like the lawsuit in Michigan will be going nowhere, and Joe Biden has been called as the projected winner.

On Thursday, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens said that she plans to deny a request by President Donald Trump’s campaign to stop the counting. Stephens said she will issue a written order by Friday afternoon.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has already told local election officials to give access to poll challengers, the judge said.

“I have no basis to find that there’s a substantial likelihood of success on the merits as it relates to this defendant, nor am I convinced that there is a clear legal duty on the part of anyone who is promptly before this court to manage this issue,” Stephens said.

“What I have at best is a hearsay affidavit, I believe, that addresses a harm that would be significant, but that’s what we got. We’ve got an affidavit that is not firsthand knowledge,” Stephens added.

BREAKING: The Trump campaign has lost their lawsuit to halt vote counting in Michigan

Read the latest on the #USelection here: https://t.co/3EEFadvB0W pic.twitter.com/vXCduODpxQ

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) November 5, 2020

The lawsuit alleged that Michigan absentee voter counting boards were not allowing inspectors from each party to be present during the counting. However, the lawsuit did not specify which boards in the state were a problem, so the judge ruled that there was no justification to proceed with the suit. This point was disputed by Trump campaign’s lawyer Thor Hearne who claimed that Ostergren was denied access to an Oakland County absentee counting board.

Meanwhile, a Georgia judge dismissed a similar lawsuit from Trump’s campaign on Thursday, ruling that there was no evidence that ballots being processed in Chatham County had been received after 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Count the votes or stop the count? Trump supporters have been trying to pressure election officials to stop counting ballots in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, while making the opposite demands in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/ZjQ2gR9K1B

— The Guardian (@guardian) November 5, 2020

These court rulings come as Trump’s former allies are starting to distance themselves from the president and his attempts to contest the election.

Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell disagreed with the president, telling The Associated Press that “claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting.”

Millions of votes are still left to be counted, and many Trump allies are urging patience as the final votes are tallied, even after Trump himself is declaring victory in states like Pennsylvania where many mail-in ballots have still not been counted.

A heckler briefly interrupted Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria during his press conference on the election count. pic.twitter.com/j9AEnQqnb2

— KSNV News 3 Las Vegas (@News3LV) November 4, 2020

Results in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania are still being determined, but following a press conference in Philadelphia on Wednesday where Eric Trump and Rudy Guiliani declared victory for the Trump administration, fact-checkers have published rebukes of many of their statements, saying that the press conference was filled with inaccuracies and misinformation.

The Trump campaign has also filed lawsuits over the election results in Nevada, where the race was also extremely close.