This claim is disputed: Trump says “we’re winning” at first post-election rally

President Donald Trump made clear Saturday he had no intention of relinquishing his baseless claims that last month’s election was stolen from him, telling a raucous crowd at his first post-poll rally he would somehow still win.

In a speech remarkable for its twisting of reality more than a month after the November 3 election, the outgoing president launched into another litany of allegations that the polls won handily by Democrat Joe Biden were rigged.

The crowd in Valdosta, Georgia for what was nominally a rally in support of two Republican Senate candidates facing a hugely consequential runoff election roared in support, at one point chanting “fight for Trump.”

Even with Covid-19 cases surging nationwide, there were few masks in the crowd and many ignored social-distancing rules.

In a nearly two-hour speech Trump, 74, declared he would not concede, at times sticking to his script but regularly going off-the-cuff for his more incendiary claims.

“We’re winning this election,” Trump told the rally, which was similar to his many gatherings prior to the election, down to the soaring country song “God Bless the USA” played as he took the stage with First Lady Melania Trump.

“It’s rigged. It’s a fixed deal.”

It was yet another example of Trump breaking democratic norms, engaging in conspiracy-mongering and presenting falsehoods in ways unprecedented in US history.

His stance has raised the question of how he will react when Biden’s January 20 swearing-in date arrives.

“The swing states that we’re all fighting over now, I won them all by a lot,” Trump said, falsely.

“And I have to say, if I lost, I’d be a very gracious loser. If I lost, I would say, I lost, and I’d go to Florida and I’d take it easy and I’d go around and I’d say I did a good job. But you can’t ever accept when they steal and rig and rob.”

Despite an overwhelming series of setbacks in the courts, the president and his lawyers have advanced wild conspiracy theories to explain Biden’s victory. 

Biden won Georgia by just under 12,000 votes. 

The win, while narrow, has been confirmed by subsequent recounts, grounding its validity to the point where Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, once a devoted Trump ally, refused the president’s calls to overturn the result.

Trump has, in turn, denounced Georgia’s Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger as an “enemy of the people.”

But on Saturday night, there were flashes where it seemed the incumbent may be beginning to accept what lies ahead.

At one point, he said half-jokingly: “A friend of mine said, ‘Oh don’t worry about it sir, you’re way up in the polls, you’ll win in 2024.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to wait until 2024. I want to go back three weeks.'”

[Sourced from Agencies]