Donald Trump peddles conspiracy theory as he falls behind in key state
Donald Trump has claimed there has been foul play in the US Election after Joe Biden overtook him in key state Michigan.
The president tweeted on Wednesday afternoon complaining his leads in key states had ‘magically disappeared’ overnight.
Peddling a conspiracy theory, he questioned why mail in ballots were always ‘devastating in their percentage and power of destruction’.
Twitter put a warning on the tweet just minutes later, stating: ‘Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about how to participate in an election or another civic process’.
The US leader wrote: ‘Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled.
‘Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!’
He added: ‘How come every time they count Mail-In ballot dumps they are so devastating in their percentage and power of destruction?’
It is far from the first time Trump has attempted to spread unsupported claims about mail-in ballots.
On Tuesday, he tweeted that a Supreme Court decision to allow more time for postal ballots to arrive in Pennsylvania would lead to ‘rampant and unchecked cheating’. The tweet was hidden by the platform as the content was ‘disputed and might be misleading’.
Democrat nominee Biden currently has a small lead in Michigan, along with Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.
This means he has leads in states worth 270 electoral votes, although it is still too early to call the race.
It comes after Trump wrongly claimed the presidency was his earlier in the day – despite there being millions of votes still to be counted and a number of important battleground states yet to be called.
He warned he ‘will not stand’ for anyone trying to win what he claims is his victory, and has vowed to take the results to the US Supreme Court to try and ensure he wins.
Meanwhile, Biden has urged patience, saying the election ‘ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted’.
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