Scoop: Trump's plan to declare premature victory

[baseline bum]

https://www.axios.com/trump-claim-election-victory-ballots-97eb12b9-5e35-402f-9ea3-0ccfb47f613f.html
Scoop: Trump's plan to declare premature victory
Jonathan Swan

President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead," according to three sources familiar with his private comments. That's even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania.

The latest: Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Trump denied that he would declare victory prematurely, before adding, "I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over."

He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ... We're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers."

"We don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots."

Behind the scenes: Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.

Why it matters: Trump's team is preparing to falsely claim that mail-in ballots counted after Nov. 3 — a legitimate count expected to favor Democrats — are evidence of election fraud.

Details: Many prognosticators say that on election night, Trump will likely appear ahead in Pennsylvania — though the state's final outcome could change substantially as mail-in ballots are counted over the following days.

Trump's team is preparing to claim baselessly that if that process changes the outcome in Pennsylvania from the picture on election night, then Democrats would have "stolen" the election.

Trump's advisers have been laying the groundwork for this strategy for weeks, but this is the first account of Trump explicitly discussing his election night intentions.

What they're saying: Asked for comment, the Trump campaign's communications director Tim Murtaugh said, "This is nothing but people trying to create doubt about a Trump victory. When he wins, he's going to say so."

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller predicted that Trump "will be re-elected handily and no amount of post-election Democratic thievery will be able to change the results."

Reality check: Mail-in ballots counted after Election Day as set forth in state-by-state rules are as legitimate as in-person votes recorded on Nov. 3.

Many states won't be done counting mail ballots by Tuesday night.

In Pennsylvania, state law prevents election officials from counting mail-in ballots before Election Day.

Night-of counts may be deceptive. It could be days, if not weeks, before we know who won Pennsylvania. If it's a close race, this could also be true for other states, given the record numbers of Americans who voted by mail this year.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said on NBC's "Meet the Press" today that there could be 10x as many mail ballots this year than in 2016, "so, yes, it will take longer" to count.

I expect that the overwhelming majority of ballots in Pennsylvania, that's mail-in and absentee ballots, as well as in-person ballots, will be counted within a matter of days," Boockvar said.

What we're watching: Miller, on ABC's "This Week," predicted 290+ electoral votes for Trump on election night, and he claimed Democrats are "just going to try to steal it back after the election."

He described any prospective challenges by Democrats as "hijinks or lawsuits or whatever kind of nonsense."

Between the lines: Trump advisers are more optimistic about winning than they were three weeks ago, based on my conversations with multiple senior campaign officials over the past week, including two officials with direct knowledge of sensitive internal data.

They said analyses of early-vote totals in battleground states indicate he's doing substantially worse in Iowa and Georgia compared with this point in 2016, but better than expected in Texas, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin.

Just a few weeks ago, senior Trump advisers were bearish about Wisconsin and had reduced TV advertising there to an insignificant figure. A senior campaign official told me, then, that the state didn't figure in his paths to 270 electoral votes.

But that appears to have changed. In recent days, senior Trump advisers have privately expressed growing optimism about Wisconsin, based on their analysis of early vote data.

The other side: “It comes as no surprise that Donald Trump and his campaign plan to declare victory before all the votes are counted. That has been his strategy for months, and nobody should fall for it,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement to Axios.

“It's why he is demonizing mail-in ballots and sabotaging the postal service. ... We will not allow that to happen. Every vote must and will be counted."

[spurraider21]

3rd world country shit tbh

[Splits]

election porn. not happening.

[Reck]

It'll make him look like a retard.

CNN, NBC, ABC and even Fox News aren't going to call races where outstanding mail in ballots won't even start kicking in until early wednesday.

[baseline bum]

3rd world country shit tbh

3rd world shithole country tbh

[ElNono]

Cheetolini ramping up the fascism, tbh

[hater]

Hell win so ot wont make a difference

[RD2191]

Fuckers trying to start a civil war tbh

[Spurtacular]

Preemptive coping. :lol

[Ef-man]

Preemptive coping. :lol

Take it as gospel truth from the derp, he knows coping, inside and out.

[DarrinS]

Poor Jonathan

[pgardn]

With a virus being a bit of, it not a big problem, Donald and the read team could have easily solved this problem by getting people to vote early, getting ballots out early, and not dismantling the postal service and localities available to vote early.

He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ...

[ChumpDumper]

Poor Jonathan:lol made your God look like a fucking fool

[SnakeBoy]

3 sauces

[hater]

Snowflakes scurred

[SnakeBoy]

Scoop: Democrats plan to steal the election by accusing Trump of trying to steal the election by declaring premature victory and then declaring belated victory for themselves

1323313186259480577

[ChumpDumper]

Poor SnakeBoy....

[Spurtacular]

Scoop: Democrats plan to steal the election by accusing Trump of trying to steal the election by declaring premature victory and then declaring belated victory for themselves

1323313186259480577

Truth bombs.

[Warlord23]

A saner Republican might have attempted something like this, but kept quiet about it before Election Day. Trump can't stop yapping about getting his lawyers in, stopping the count, not counting mail-in ballots etc. All it does is alienate independents and fire up the Dem base. So keep going Donnie, and sabotage as many down-ballot Republicans as you can

[Bogie]

Poor SnakeBoy....


he’s as smart as derp. They are equally intellectual

[boutons_deux]

With a virus being a bit of, it not a big problem, Donald and the read team could have easily solved this problem by getting people to vote early, getting ballots out early, and not dismantling the postal service and localities available to vote early.

He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ...

In his ignorant naivete, Trash wants to stop counting at midnight 3 Nov.

In the modern era, counting has never been completed by 24:00.

[boutons_deux]

3rd world shithole country tbh

Thanks to the weak, abused, violated oligarchy/Christian-supremacist weaponized Constitution and politicized SCOTUS.

America is a "fake" country, not an organic county, summoned, created out of nothing by the Constitution.

That's why America has 90% of the planet's fucking lawyers, to fight and sue and rig the legal system that defines America.

If one can master the legal system (and thereby the financial system), one can own America, as the Capitalist oligarchy does now.

That's why assholes go around "sociopathically" armed with "rights" to beat on others.

Rights as tools, weapons.

The Constitution has failed, is beyond repair, and so America has failed.

Result? 60M+ Americans elected Trash. And 50M+ will still vote for him after 4 years of Trash/Repug/oligarchy carnage.

[Spurminator]

election porn. not happening.

I've seen nothing in the last 4-5 years to believe Donald Trump will not declare victory regardless of the actual results.

At the very least, we can all agree he's not going to concede, right? It's not required by law, it's just a historical norm, and it's a norm that requires him to admit defeat. Not going to happen.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Whoever is ahead in each state as of dawn EST tomorrow morning should be declared the winner of each given state, tbh. SCOTUS should make this rule today. Then, tally the EC votes, and 270+ is the winner

[ChumpDumper]

We'll get a lot of "we'll see what happens" and "we have our people looking at it very strongly" while QAnon incels lock and load.

[florige]

I've seen nothing in the last 4-5 years to believe Donald Trump will not declare victory regardless of the actual results.

At the very least, we can all agree he's not going to concede, right? It's not required by law, it's just a historical norm, and it's a norm that requires him to admit defeat. Not going to happen.



I agree Trump's ego won't allow him to all Biden and actually concede. Hell would freeze over first before that happens

[ChumpDumper]

Whoever is ahead in each state as of dawn EST tomorrow morning should be declared the winner of each given state, tbh. SCOTUS should make this rule today. Then, tally the EC votes, and 270+ is the winnerWhy?

Does it already hurt?

[baseline bum]

Whoever is ahead in each state as of dawn EST tomorrow morning should be declared the winner of each given state, tbh. SCOTUS should make this rule today. Then, tally the EC votes, and 270+ is the winner

SCOTUS should make this rule today if they want the entire fucking nation to be burned to the ground tomorrow.

[Spurminator]

Even in a Biden blowout scenario, I expect three months of rallies where President Trump openly questions the legitimacy of the results.

And every fucking shill who supported him will act like that's not a big deal.

[Splits]

I've seen nothing in the last 4-5 years to believe Donald Trump will not declare victory regardless of the actual results.

At the very least, we can all agree he's not going to concede, right? It's not required by law, it's just a historical norm, and it's a norm that requires him to admit defeat. Not going to happen.

I don't think he'll concede or not claim voter fraud or not act subhuman like he always has. I think he'd literally off himself before doing that (could happen in a huge landslide). But he's going to get routed tonight and have no McConnells or Rubios or other sycophants repeating his nonsense. He has no friends and will be portrayed as "old man shouts at clouds" within 24 hours.

[Millennial_Messiah]

SCOTUS should make this rule today if they want the entire fucking nation to be burned to the ground tomorrow.
:lmao #LeftWingLogic

And what is the excuse, tbh? Not a lot of votes to tally in Hawaii and Alaska, so it should be a non-issue there.

[Splits]

Whoever is ahead in each state as of dawn EST tomorrow morning should be declared the winner of each given state, tbh. SCOTUS should make this rule today. Then, tally the EC votes, and 270+ is the winner

mmmm, these magatard tears are going to be delicious.

[baseline bum]

:lmao #LeftWingLogic

Right wing logic is end voting and end democracy. If there is anything to overthrow the nation for, ending voting would be it.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Right wing logic is end voting and end democracy. If there is anything to overthrow the nation for, ending voting would be it.
I would vote to end democracy and pronounce Trump as our emperor and his children/clan the long-term successors to our beautiful dictatorship.

The Roman Republic was estimated to last around 250 years... it's about time we had a Julius Caesar like president like Trump to evolve us into the American Empire... MAGA, bitches.

[Spurminator]

I would vote to end democracy and pronounce Trump as our emperor and his children/clan the long-term successors to our beautiful dictatorship.

The Roman Republic was estimated to last around 250 years... it's about time we had a Julius Caesar like president like Trump to evolve us into the American Empire... MAGA, bitches.

lol so edgy

[Reck]

Whoever is ahead in each state as of dawn EST tomorrow morning should be declared the winner of each given state, tbh. SCOTUS should make this rule today. Then, tally the EC votes, and 270+ is the winner

But I thought you were extremely confident about Trump so why all are you jumping through hoops?

:lol

[Millennial_Messiah]

But I thought you were extremely confident about Trump so why all are you jumping through hoops?

:lol

Extremely confident about Trump? When did I post that? My official prediction in the betting thread yesterday was for a 269-269 split, tbh. :lol

[Millennial_Messiah]

lol so edgy

Face it, Trump's kids would make fantastic long-term leaders. End the gridlock and cancel leftism for good. Would be perfect.

[DMC]

I've seen nothing in the last 4-5 years to believe Donald Trump will not declare victory regardless of the actual results.

At the very least, we can all agree he's not going to concede, right? It's not required by law, it's just a historical norm, and it's a norm that requires him to admit defeat. Not going to happen.

With NBC and other news outlets waiting to declare a winner in the race, Clinton did not announce victory before departing the state for New Hampshire, where she will begin campaigning again Tuesday morning ahead of the state’s first-in-the nation primary February 9.

But her top supporter in the state, former Sen. Tom Harkin did it for her. “A win is a win,” Harkin said, “narrow, I know it is. We are coming out of here with a win and we are going to move ahead with Hillary Clinton."

The Clintons were supposed to work a rope line, and Bill and Chelsea Clinton were expected to speak, but the program was cut short without a known winner. The campaign was in a rush to the airport with a blizzard heading for Iowa.

DING

[ChumpDumper]

The hell was that ding for?

[Spurminator]

DING


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khK9fIgoNjQ

[Spurminator]

Face it, Trump's kids would make fantastic long-term leaders. End the gridlock and cancel leftism for good. Would be perfect.

Don't give yourself a papercut with that edge.

[Trainwreck2100]

Even in a Biden blowout scenario, I expect three months of rallies where President Trump openly questions the legitimacy of the results.

And every fucking shill who supported him will act like that's not a big deal.
Good let him run around instead of fucking us in the lame duck

[Spurminator]

Good let him run around instead of fucking us in the lame duck

He'll do both.

[baseline bum]

Good let him run around instead of fucking us in the lame duck

He'll be running around trying to lead a violent overthrow of Biden in that scenario.

[ElNono]

Whoever is ahead in each state as of dawn EST tomorrow morning should be declared the winner of each given state, tbh. SCOTUS should make this rule today. Then, tally the EC votes, and 270+ is the winner

Why do you America though?

[Millennial_Messiah]

Why do you America though?

#AmericanEmpire #MAGA #DefeatTheRepublic #ThreePercent

[Millennial_Messiah]

He'll be running around trying to lead a violent overthrow of Biden in that scenario.

Would be awesome to see a true military coup and civil war between the hipsters and antifaggots who've never shot a gun in their live and a Trump-backed U.S. Military plus GOP/libertarian citizens with guns and years of gun experience. :tu now THAT would be a landslide victory!

For every hipster/genderqueerfaggot/antifa faggot/BLM faggot/marxist dead, an angel gains its wings. MAGA baby!

[ElNono]

#AmericanEmpire #MAGA #DefeatTheRepublic #ThreePercent

You should seriously consider the viability of suicide if old Joe wins, tbh...

[Millennial_Messiah]

You should seriously consider the viability of suicide if old Joe wins, tbh...

No, it's passport and immigration time. I've already experienced 37 of 50 US states in person (no west coast, lol) so it's time to check out what the rest of the world has to offer.

[ElNono]

Would be awesome to see a true military coup and civil war between the hipsters and antifaggots who've never shot a gun in their live and a Trump-backed U.S. Military plus GOP/libertarian citizens with guns and years of gun experience. :tu now THAT would be a landslide victory!

For every hipster/genderqueerfaggot/antifa faggot/BLM faggot/marxist dead, an angel gains its wings. MAGA baby!

As much as Dennison tried to make this a third world country, Military is not backing up a dictatorship...

Heck, he already tried when he was a bunker bitch and the Military told him to go fuck himself.

[ElNono]

No, it's passport and immigration time. I've already experienced 37 of 50 US states in person (no west coast, lol) so it's time to check out what the rest of the world has to offer.

And pray tell what conservative utopia are you heading to? :lol

Actually, a tour through the world would do you good, tbh, you'll see conservatism is alive and well in the US.

[Spurtacular]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5_eILHUQjk

[ChumpDumper]

And pray tell what conservative utopia are you heading to? :lol

Actually, a tour through the world would do you good, tbh, you'll see conservatism is alive and well in the US.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/El2pDdLX0AEtxQV.jpg

[Spurtacular]

:lol "Three sources"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQh0EdSUUn0

[Spurtacular]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/El2pDdLX0AEtxQV.jpg


Do we have socialized medicine?

[baseline bum]

No, it's passport and immigration time. I've already experienced 37 of 50 US states in person (no west coast, lol) so it's time to check out what the rest of the world has to offer.

Could always go to Somalia for your libertarian fantasies

[ChumpDumper]

Do we have socialized medicine?

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/EvergreenValuableHermitcrab-max-1mb.gif

[baseline bum]

As much as Dennison tried to make this a third world country, Military is not backing up a dictatorship...

Heck, he already tried when he was a bunker bitch and the Military told him to go fuck himself.

Hence the need for his Portland Schutzstaffel. Would be funny seeing MAGAtards on scooters taking on AC-130s.

[Will Hunting]

Could always go to Somalia for your libertarian fantasies
:lol he said he wants to go to Iceland. The social democrats there aren’t going to be receptive to his MAGA edgelord bullshit.

[ElNono]

:lol he said he wants to go to Iceland. The social democrats there aren’t going to be receptive to his MAGA edgelord bullshit.

:lmao Iceland. He'll be back in less than a day scurred of "socialism!"

[Spurtacular]

:lol Moar double speak from Chumpettes.

1323027164329963521

1323025932085420032

[ChumpDumper]

:lol Moar double speak from Chumpettes.

1323027164329963521

1323025932085420032Didn't he actually win tho?

[Spurtacular]

Didn't he actually win tho?

So you'll be okay if Trump declares victory prematurely so long as he still ends up winning. :tu

[ChumpDumper]

So you'll be okay if Trump declares victory prematurely so long as he still ends up winning. :tuIf he says it the way Pete did, probably.

He won't.

As long as he doesn't try to stop votes from being counted.

Pete did not do that.

Do you agree all the valid votes received should be counted, derp?

Yes or no.

[Spurtacular]

If he says it the way Pete did, probably.

Whites in the back. :lolK

[ChumpDumper]

Whites in the back. :lolK?

They're both white.

Do you agree all the valid votes received should be counted, derp?

Yes or no.

[Spurtacular]

?

How'd he do it in your spin world? By the media hyping him up with all the coverage? :lmao

[ChumpDumper]

How'd he do it in your spin world? By the media hyping him up with all the coverage? :lmaoThe speech is on video.

If you need to go down that rabbit hole you can find it yourself.

Do you agree all the valid votes received should be counted, derp?

Yes or no.

[Spurtacular]

The speech is on video.

If you need to go down that rabbit hole you can find it yourself.

Scorned woman thinks we should know what he means.

[ChumpDumper]

Scorned woman thinks we should know what he means.See, you're not going to look it up.

Do you agree all the valid votes received should be counted, derp?

Yes or no.

[Spurtacular]

Scorned woman really scorned. It is what it is.

[ChumpDumper]

Scorned woman really scorned. It is what it is.You fold, derp.

You were asked four times and you won't say you want all valid votes counted.

And you wouldn't mourn the death of your child.

It is what it is.

[RandomGuy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5_eILHUQjk

"its more of a feeling thing" 312T to 226B

Biden is an "unknown commodity" :rollin

More copium.

[Spurtacular]

"its more of a feeling thing" 312T to 226B

Biden is an "unknown commodity" :rollin

More copium.

Trump wins Super Bowls. You don't kick out the head coach for a guy who has lost at every level.

Shout-out to my Latino niggas.

[RandomGuy]

https://www.axios.com/trump-claim-election-victory-ballots-97eb12b9-5e35-402f-9ea3-0ccfb47f613f.html
Scoop: Trump's plan to declare premature victory
Jonathan Swan

President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead," according to three sources familiar with his private comments. That's even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania.

The latest: Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Trump denied that he would declare victory prematurely, before adding, "I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over."

He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ... We're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers."

"We don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots."

Behind the scenes: Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.

Why it matters: Trump's team is preparing to falsely claim that mail-in ballots counted after Nov. 3 — a legitimate count expected to favor Democrats — are evidence of election fraud.

Details: Many prognosticators say that on election night, Trump will likely appear ahead in Pennsylvania — though the state's final outcome could change substantially as mail-in ballots are counted over the following days.

Trump's team is preparing to claim baselessly that if that process changes the outcome in Pennsylvania from the picture on election night, then Democrats would have "stolen" the election.

Trump's advisers have been laying the groundwork for this strategy for weeks, but this is the first account of Trump explicitly discussing his election night intentions.

What they're saying: Asked for comment, the Trump campaign's communications director Tim Murtaugh said, "This is nothing but people trying to create doubt about a Trump victory. When he wins, he's going to say so."

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller predicted that Trump "will be re-elected handily and no amount of post-election Democratic thievery will be able to change the results."

Reality check: Mail-in ballots counted after Election Day as set forth in state-by-state rules are as legitimate as in-person votes recorded on Nov. 3.

Many states won't be done counting mail ballots by Tuesday night.

In Pennsylvania, state law prevents election officials from counting mail-in ballots before Election Day.

Night-of counts may be deceptive. It could be days, if not weeks, before we know who won Pennsylvania. If it's a close race, this could also be true for other states, given the record numbers of Americans who voted by mail this year.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said on NBC's "Meet the Press" today that there could be 10x as many mail ballots this year than in 2016, "so, yes, it will take longer" to count.

I expect that the overwhelming majority of ballots in Pennsylvania, that's mail-in and absentee ballots, as well as in-person ballots, will be counted within a matter of days," Boockvar said.

What we're watching: Miller, on ABC's "This Week," predicted 290+ electoral votes for Trump on election night, and he claimed Democrats are "just going to try to steal it back after the election."

He described any prospective challenges by Democrats as "hijinks or lawsuits or whatever kind of nonsense."

Between the lines: Trump advisers are more optimistic about winning than they were three weeks ago, based on my conversations with multiple senior campaign officials over the past week, including two officials with direct knowledge of sensitive internal data.

They said analyses of early-vote totals in battleground states indicate he's doing substantially worse in Iowa and Georgia compared with this point in 2016, but better than expected in Texas, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin.

Just a few weeks ago, senior Trump advisers were bearish about Wisconsin and had reduced TV advertising there to an insignificant figure. A senior campaign official told me, then, that the state didn't figure in his paths to 270 electoral votes.

But that appears to have changed. In recent days, senior Trump advisers have privately expressed growing optimism about Wisconsin, based on their analysis of early vote data.

The other side: “It comes as no surprise that Donald Trump and his campaign plan to declare victory before all the votes are counted. That has been his strategy for months, and nobody should fall for it,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement to Axios.

“It's why he is demonizing mail-in ballots and sabotaging the postal service. ... We will not allow that to happen. Every vote must and will be counted."

... and he is right now saying he won.

... and he will try to stop the counting.

[boutons_deux]

... and he is right now saying he won.

... and he will try to stop the counting.

... with 57 EC votes below 270

... undeclared states with Repug govt will probably stop counting or otherwise queer the vote, and the Dems won't sue them

If neither candidate gets 270, the election goes to the House where the Repugs have the advantage,

the advantage being more states controlled by Repug legislatures (not seats in the Federal House of Reps).

Another case where the fucking archaic, irreparable Constitution screws democracy.

[Spurtacular]

Democrats straight up refusing to finish tallying the votes. Very shameful.
We knew all along that it was BS that the outcome couldn't be known on election night.

[tholdren]

https://www.axios.com/trump-claim-election-victory-ballots-97eb12b9-5e35-402f-9ea3-0ccfb47f613f.html
Scoop: Trump's plan to declare premature victory
Jonathan Swan

President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead," according to three sources familiar with his private comments. That's even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania.

The latest: Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Trump denied that he would declare victory prematurely, before adding, "I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over."

He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ... We're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers."

"We don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots."

Behind the scenes: Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.

Why it matters: Trump's team is preparing to falsely claim that mail-in ballots counted after Nov. 3 — a legitimate count expected to favor Democrats — are evidence of election fraud.

Details: Many prognosticators say that on election night, Trump will likely appear ahead in Pennsylvania — though the state's final outcome could change substantially as mail-in ballots are counted over the following days.

Trump's team is preparing to claim baselessly that if that process changes the outcome in Pennsylvania from the picture on election night, then Democrats would have "stolen" the election.

Trump's advisers have been laying the groundwork for this strategy for weeks, but this is the first account of Trump explicitly discussing his election night intentions.

What they're saying: Asked for comment, the Trump campaign's communications director Tim Murtaugh said, "This is nothing but people trying to create doubt about a Trump victory. When he wins, he's going to say so."

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller predicted that Trump "will be re-elected handily and no amount of post-election Democratic thievery will be able to change the results."

Reality check: Mail-in ballots counted after Election Day as set forth in state-by-state rules are as legitimate as in-person votes recorded on Nov. 3.

Many states won't be done counting mail ballots by Tuesday night.

In Pennsylvania, state law prevents election officials from counting mail-in ballots before Election Day.

Night-of counts may be deceptive. It could be days, if not weeks, before we know who won Pennsylvania. If it's a close race, this could also be true for other states, given the record numbers of Americans who voted by mail this year.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said on NBC's "Meet the Press" today that there could be 10x as many mail ballots this year than in 2016, "so, yes, it will take longer" to count.

I expect that the overwhelming majority of ballots in Pennsylvania, that's mail-in and absentee ballots, as well as in-person ballots, will be counted within a matter of days," Boockvar said.

What we're watching: Miller, on ABC's "This Week," predicted 290+ electoral votes for Trump on election night, and he claimed Democrats are "just going to try to steal it back after the election."

He described any prospective challenges by Democrats as "hijinks or lawsuits or whatever kind of nonsense."

Between the lines: Trump advisers are more optimistic about winning than they were three weeks ago, based on my conversations with multiple senior campaign officials over the past week, including two officials with direct knowledge of sensitive internal data.

They said analyses of early-vote totals in battleground states indicate he's doing substantially worse in Iowa and Georgia compared with this point in 2016, but better than expected in Texas, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin.

Just a few weeks ago, senior Trump advisers were bearish about Wisconsin and had reduced TV advertising there to an insignificant figure. A senior campaign official told me, then, that the state didn't figure in his paths to 270 electoral votes.

But that appears to have changed. In recent days, senior Trump advisers have privately expressed growing optimism about Wisconsin, based on their analysis of early vote data.

The other side: “It comes as no surprise that Donald Trump and his campaign plan to declare victory before all the votes are counted. That has been his strategy for months, and nobody should fall for it,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement to Axios.

“It's why he is demonizing mail-in ballots and sabotaging the postal service. ... We will not allow that to happen. Every vote must and will be counted."

Good

[tholdren]

... and he is right now saying he won.

... and he will try to stop the counting.

Even better

[boutons_deux]

Dejoy is probably destroying mailed in ballots that he refused to deliver

[RandomGuy]

Democrats straight up refusing to finish tallying the votes. Very shameful.
We knew all along that it was BS that the outcome couldn't be known on election night.

link?

[Winehole23]

Democrats straight up refusing to finish tallying the votes. Very shameful.
We knew all along that it was BS that the outcome couldn't be known on election night.You've got it backward. WI, MN and PA's gerrymandered, Republican-led legislatures rejected laws that would've allowed absentee ballots to be counted yesterday.

[Spurtacular]

Funny how they put this out there in advance. They knew they needed time to cook the books.

[ElNono]

Funny how they put this out there in advance. They knew they needed time to cook the books.

who are 'they'?

[spurraider21]

who are 'they'?
jews

[pgardn]

Funny how they put this out there in advance. They knew they needed time to cook the books.

They...

Your red team finally got totally embarrassed by the mess and squashed it.
You are so unaware you cant be embarrassed.

They were actually looking for bamboo in the ballots to prove the ballot paper was made in Asia to prove... uhhhh... and then they ran out of story and were totally humiliated by the rabbit holes created just leaking illogical fecal material. It was getting made fun of so your team cut and ran.

[Ef-man]

Funny how they put this out there in advance. They knew they needed time to cook the books.

Check books, the pages may be made from bamboo as Chinese were involved. Plus see if they have traces of spaghetti cause the Italians were involved too.

[pgardn]

Check books, the pages may be made from bamboo as Chinese were involved. Plus see if they have traces of spaghetti cause the Italians were involved too.

This is how bad it gets...

Did they really look for spaghetti? These idiots were so desperate I could believe it ... really? Or is that yours?

[ElNono]

jews

jews just can't say that

[Ef-man]

This is how bad it gets...

Did they really look for spaghetti? These idiots were so desperate I could believe it ... really? Or is that yours?

Cyber Ninjas cannot rule anything out. Probably checking servers for traces of tacos as Hugo Chavez was involved.