In 2018 Kayleigh McEnany, who would later become Donald Trump’s press secretary, appeared on Fox News after the 2018 midterm election. “Democrats are being sore losers” fires McEnany, “They refuse to acknowledge they lost the election, so what do they do? They cry malfeasance, wrongdoing, criminality, fraud.” In the aftermath of the 2020 election, there is no better time than to use these exact words, replacing Democrats with Republicans. 

On November 7th, Joe Biden was the projected winner of the presidential election. With 290 electoral votes, Biden swiftly took the lead against incumbent Donald Trump with only 217 electoral votes. As many expected, Trump refuses to accept the results. A perfect example of this would be his Twitter feed. A quick scroll produces several flagged tweets that spread misinformation. He goes on several rants typing in all capital letters about voter fraud and inaccurate election results. However is there any truth behind these claims? 

Simply put, there is no credibility or truth to any claims of voter fraud either by Trump or the GOP. Top election officials from both sides have stated clearly not only were the results accurate, but very successful. Even during a pandemic, millions of Americans cast their ballots and their voices have been heard. Yet, Trump and his campaign led by Rudy Giuliani have been relentlessly filing lawsuits in swing-states. So far they have found little success. In Arizona, his campaign claimed that some voters had their ballots rejected since they were filled out with Sharpies. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency quickly debunked this baseless conspiracy. Then in Georgia, Trump claimed that Joe Biden received 100,000 votes through ballots ONLY cast for Biden. Well, basic math can easily disprove this yet again faulty claim. There were 4,991,753 votes cast in Georgia in the presidential election, while only 4,945,454 votes cast in the Perdue-Ossoff race for the Senate. That is a difference of 46,299 votes, not 100,000. 

In the mind of Trump and his supporters, they believe a situation similar to that of Bush v. Gore in 2000 will occur again. It took around 37 days for lawsuits filed by Palm Beach County’s ballot disaster to reach the Supreme Court. However, in 2020, Biden leads with more than 50 electoral votes. He won this election by a significant amount, in due part to Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. Junior Carly Collins voiced her concerns on Trump’s childish behavior, “I believe that his claims are not credible whatsoever, but if there is any true evidence to voter fraud it definitely should be investigated.” The majority of the population seems to agree with Carly’s sentiments. 2020 has been a tumultuous year, and this election certainly does not reduce the anxiety and stress for many Americans. 

In this modern age with greater internet access, it is essential that the information on any platform is the sheer and honest truth. The absence of fact-checking and the inability to understand a credible source is very harmful. Knowledge is a beautiful aspect of human life and history. Yet, to undermine its meaning, would be an offense to democracy. So, Kayleigh let us not be sore losers and completely leave this mess behind in 2020.