Michael Calderone: In an anti-democratic rant from the White House, the president prematurely declared victory, putting states in his column that haven’t yet been called, vowed to go to the Supreme Court to stop votes from being tallied, and baselessly claimed a “fraud” had taken place. “We did win this election,” Trump asserted, as if he, and not the American people, gets to decide the outcome. All the warning signs have been there that Trump—who has long peddled the lie of widespread voter fraud—would attack the integrity of the election, especially mail-in votes, and potentially disenfranchise Americans in the process. But for now, the count continues.
Tom Frank: I’m thinking back to when Americans went to bed on Election Day in 2000, and everything was up in the air. The general spirit among journalists and citizens alike was captured in the words “wow,” “surreal,” “exciting,” “historic.” This time around, the general spirit is captured in the words, “Aw, fuck.”
Eric Lutz: In the end, it seems, everything will come down to a few states: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The 2020 election, which remains undecided, was expected to hinge on the battlegrounds. But after a chaotic and catastrophic term under Donald Trump, especially with nearly a quarter of a million Americans dead in the past year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, even some who still suffered from 2016 shellshock had allowed themselves to entertain thoughts of a decisive Joe Biden victory. If the prospect of 400,000 dying by year’s end due to Trump’s mismanagement can’t convince someone to pull the lever for the other guy, after all, will anything? Swing states would be crucial, sure. But wasn’t it possible that enough people had seen the light to give Biden and Kamala Harris a bit more of a cushion?
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