President Donald Trump started off Election Day with a very bold prediction on Fox News. After calling into Fox & Friends, Trump stated that he feels confident he will win Texas, Florida and Arizona with “very big” numbers. He also stated that he believes he’ll do well in North Carolina.
“We’re feeling very good. We have crowds like nobody has ever had before,” Trump stated. “I think that translates into a lot of votes, and we’re going to see very soon.” Trump later said that he believes he will win more than 306 electoral points, which is what he was awarded in 2016 when he won the presidential election. That election outcome has had people debating for the past four years, as Trump won the Electoral votes but did not win the popular vote. This means that fewer individuals voted for him than voted for Hillary Clinton.
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An exhausted-sounding Trump on when he’ll declare victory: “When there’s victory. If there’s victory … there’s no reason to play games.” pic.twitter.com/MiuuPjTe1E
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 3, 2020
During his Fox & Friends interview, Trump also seemed to refute a recent report that indicated he had been planning to prematurely declare victory. He said he will not “play games,” and that he will only accept the win if “there is victory.” Trump added, “I think we have a very solid chance of winning, and I think a lot of that has to do with the tremendous crowd size.”
The president also spoke about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and told the Fox News hosts that the United States is “rounding the corner.” He explained, “I say rounding the corner. Some people don’t like that phrase, but I use that phrase.” This was in reference to the prospect of a COVID-19 vaccine happening anytime soon, though it is unclear when one might actually be ready.
Notably, Trump’s enthusiasm for beating the pandemic does not match the tone of White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx, who issued an internal memo recently that was published by the Washington Post. “We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic … leading to increasing mortality,” Birx wrote. “This is not about lockdowns — It hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April. It’s about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented.” To date, it is estimated that there have been over 230,000 deaths in the United States, due to coronavirus.
