Live US elections | Trump repeats false claims about election fraud: “Will only accept fair results”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has held campaign rallies for the first time since the start of the criminal trial against him. There was a break in the session on Wednesday, and he headed to the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. He won those states in the 2016 elections, but lost in 2020. This prompted Trump to make statements about election fraud, which were refuted. Yet Trump continues to repeat that he believes fraud took place.

In a conversation with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the newspaper asked the former president about the recounts that Trump had requested in some regions. Recounts also showed that Biden won. But Trump still sees it differently. “If you look back, I won the election in Wisconsin.”

In line with this, he refuses to say that he will accept the outcome of the next elections. He only wants to do that “if everything is fair”. Asked what that means, Trump says “the votes must be counted fairly.” He also referred to voters who cast their ballots by mail during the pandemic, something Trump opposed. “I want to see a fair election, and I think we will get that this time.”

At the meeting in Wisconsin, Trump mainly spoke about issues such as inflation, migration and the protest against the war in Gaza. A few hours later, he largely jettisoned those speeches in Michigan. According to the Detroit Free Press, he told attendees that his team will make “a historic effort to stop election fraud.” He also repeatedly talked about the criminal trial against him, which he again dismissed as a political trial to undermine him He called Judge Juan Merchan “corrupt”.