FUGLY

Trump may be so concerned with winning this election that he is willing to screw the Republicans for years. He has just declared himself the winner in Pennsylvania.
https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/11/04/trump-campaign-declares-victory-in-pennsylvania-predicts-reelection-by-friday-n1125558

I get it. The Trump campaign believes they have been hosed in Michigan, Arizona, possibly Wisconsin. He may be right. He’s already called for a recount in Wisconsin and is challenging the shady appearing counts in Michigan. In an effort to stave off any further potential fraud (and probably in a salve to his ego) he feels it helps his cause to insinuate that further counting will only lead to more fraud.

However, even if that is true and he and his team are correct in their assessment of the numbers, the optics of this are absolutely atrocious. It plays right into the hand of the left providing them the perfect tie in to their pre-election claims of Trump being unwilling to leave the White House if he lost.

Moreover, he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Count every vote in Arizona. Stop counting in Pennsylvania. Umm… difficult to reconcile. Frankly, if the Trump team was unprepared heading into the election to monitor the vote in Philadelphia and other parts of Pennsylvania — or Michigan — or elsewhere in the country, that’s on Team Trump. I’m not saying he should concede at this point, but he most certainly should have handled this differently.