In the aftermath of Joe Biden’s win in Pennsylvania on Saturday, putting an end to election week, and making him the 46th President of the United States, Trump supporters have taken to protesting.
Across the country, “Stop the Steal” protests insist that the Democratic Party “stole” the election from Donald Trump. This is not true.
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan visited one of these protests in Pennsylvania, finding hundreds of protesters littering the streets. Protesters, most of whom not wearing face masks, carried Trump/Pence signs, American flags, or homemade “stop the steal” signs.
“Trump is still your president,” one protester can be heard shouting.
The Facebook page for Stop the Steal, which has since been taken down, amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in the aftermath of the announced election results.
One protester told O’Sullivan that the Trump supporters went to bed on November 3rd, with Trump well ahead. But, woke up to find a spike of upwards of 130,000 votes for Biden in Michigan. Hundreds of people, including Trump himself, referenced an article written by The Federalist alleging the Democrats were trying to steal the election.
Decision Desk HQ tweeted that this was due to a clerical error in the vote counts. Election officials confirmed this.
Delays in news outlet reporting some of the votes, another protester mentioned, are a big part of why they believe the election had been stolen.
To this, O’Sullivan tried to explain that many Democratic ballots were absentee or mailed in. The ballots cast on election day were counted first, followed by the mail-in ballots, explaining the jump in votes for Biden.
In addition to all this, false claims alleging voter fraud were spreading on Facebook and Twitter. The platforms tried to censor these claims.
A viral video of a bag of sample ballots, reportedly for Trump, being set on fire in Virginia has also contributed to this pro-Trump panic. These ballots were confirmed to be fake by election officials, and Virginia took days to try to clear up the misinformation
While these protesters may insist the election is not over, it very much is. Joe Biden will, thankfully, be the next President of the United States.
For more on the presidential election, click here.
