Daniel Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a contributor to the Washington Post and apparently not a fan of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories that the upcoming 2016 elections will be rigged:
1) There is no voting at polling places going on right now;
2) You're trying to undermine our electoral system;
3) Go fuck yourself. https://t.co/3hJU90c6IQ— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 16, 2016
Tell us how you really feel.
Trump had a number of tweets Sunday morning on how the media is “rigging” election, first going after Saturday Night Live for its portrayal of him at the last debate:
Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Then he tweeted that the poll are actually closer than the media wants you to believe:
Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
And that Hillary Clinton is in cahoots with the MSM in planting stories “that never happened in the news!”:
Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Trump later expanded his attack and including actual vote tampering at polling places (this is the tweet that inspired Drezner to tweet, “go f*** yourself”:
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Trump’s inclusion of “polling places” actually went against what his surrogates (including Gov. Mike Pence) were saying on the Sunday shows:
Trump sees people (like Pence) spin on TV that he's just talking about media bias and it annoys him because he knows exactly what he means. https://t.co/E08KX9QvIM
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) October 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/hollybdc/status/787700814106206208
Multiple Trump surrogates and his running mate spent this morning making the case that he was referring the "media" rigging the election. https://t.co/X7QekTnQF2
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) October 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/787707874701090816
Trump feels the need to clarify that he’s not just talking about media rigging the election, but actual stolen votes. Gasoline on a fire. https://t.co/ezPfk8rFMU
— Nicole Hemmer (@pastpunditry) October 16, 2016
It’s also not clear what Trump actually meant:
How is the election being rigged at polling places when voting is not yet happening at polling places https://t.co/g73BH23A9X
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 16, 2016
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