As the sun set on Thursday evening, it seemed that the walls were closing in on president Donald Trump.
The president had not been seen since election night when he delivered his premature victory speech in the East Room of the White House. In the interim, Trump's electoral prospects had darkened.
As predicted, a "red mirage" had come to pass. While the early tallies from the US presidential election had initially delivered a positive result for Trump, the picture changed as more mail-in ballots were received in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.
As Joe Biden appeared to close in on victory, the Trump campaign ramped up its threats and its rhetoric. Echoing the president's Twitter feed, which made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and rigged elections, the campaign dispatched adviser Rudy Giuliani, former Florida attorney general and Trump impeachment lawyer Pam Bondi, and Trump family members to key swing states.
At pop-up press conferences in Philadelphia and Nevada, they made unproven claims of election corruption. Multiple legal actions were launched.
As the vote count continued at a slow pace throughout the week, Biden addressed the country twice – once on Wednesday evening, when he urged patience but predicted he would win the election; and again 24 hours later when he delivered the same message, urging people to stay calm, see out the process and said "and we have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be the winners".
Fact-free speech
This time it appeared to be too much for Donald Trump. Shortly after, the White House announced an impromptu press conference and Trump strode into the press room where he made his second fact-free speech of the week, claiming, without evidence, that the election was fraudulent.
“We can’t have an election stolen like this . . . We can’t let this happen to our country,” he said as the neon light of the exit sign was caught in the frame of an AP photographer.
What was going on behind the scenes was equally telling. Shortly after Biden finished speaking on Thursday, several Trump family members took to Twitter to directly call out Republicans for not publicly defending the president. Donald Trump jnr specifically referred to 2024 Republican hopefuls.
"The total lack of action from virtually all of the '2024 GOP [Republican] hopefuls' is pretty amazing." On cue, senior members of the party came out to bat for the president. Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the UN and an early favourite for the Republican nomination, was one of the first, though her comments came before the president's speech.
"We all owe Donald Trump for his leadership of conservative victories for Senate, House, & state legislatures. He and the American people deserve transparency & fairness as the votes are counted. The law must be followed. We have to keep the faith that the truth will prevail."
As most of the world watched the president’s defiant speech in disbelief, several Republican members of Congress gave a full-throated defence of his comments on the conservative airwaves.
Senator Ted Cruz – once a presidential rival to Trump but now a staunch supporter – declared on Fox News that election observers were being denied access in Democratic cities across the country.
‘Shroud of darkness’
"The reason you don't want observers there is because you're doing something you don't want to be observed," he told Sean Hannity. "I am angry. The American people should be angry . . . by clouding the vote process in a shroud of darkness, they are setting the stage to potentially steal an election."
This Republican position should be concerning as the coming days play out, even though some senators like Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney have refrained from cheerleading for Trump.
As the country reaches an unprecedented juncture, Trump looks unlikely to concede, and instead has thrown his energy into legal battles in several states, vowing on Thursday night that the matter will go to the supreme court.
Though most of Fox News’s big personalities are backing the president, one of the most intriguing sub-themes of this week has been a clash between Trump and Fox, over the network’s decision to call the state of Arizona for Biden on election night ahead of other networks.
As votes continued to come in from the state that were more favourable to Biden than had been expected, Fox may be vindicated in its decision. But Trump’s fury at the network with which he has had a symbiotic relationship will be lasting.
It is also likely to fuel speculation that Trump could establish his own right-wing media platform in a post-White House world. After all, the recent New York Times investigation into Trump's taxes was a reminder of the vast amount of money Trump made from The Apprentice, as his other business ventures underperformed.
Chink of light
Nonetheless, with Trump due to remain in situ in the White House come what way until inauguration day on January 20th, the president was said to be considering pursuing various legal avenues until the results are officially certified and electors have to report the results of each state in early-mid December.
Tellingly, the Trump campaign website now reroutes visitors to the “official election defence fund”, asking supporters to donate money to help fund a post-election litigation campaign.
Experts point out that the margins are such that any legal challenge is unlikely to work. The only chink of light for Trump seems to be the possibility that the supreme court returns to a case in Pennsylvania which allowed mail-in ballots to be received three days after polls close. Even then, the number of ballots involved would have to be sufficient to turn the state towards Trump and he would still need to win Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Washington is one of suspended anxiety, as the country awaits the next steps in this unprecedented political stand-off. So far, there have been few signs of the unrest that erupted this summer, though isolated incidents have been reported.
Nonetheless, inflammatory language from Donald Trump jnr, who said the best thing for America was for his father to go to “total war” over the election, is alarming. As Donald Trump refuses to go down without a fight, the country remains on edge.
