We just got word, via the president’s Twitter account, that Trump plans to make a statement tonight. Trump sent a lot of signals going into tonight that, almost no matter what the actual results, he would falsely or prematurely claim victory. Indeed, the outcome of the 2020 presidential election is still very much in doubt, and things likely won’t become clearer until Pennsylvania and Michigan finish counting all their votes. We’re also waiting for official projections in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and a handful of other contests. But since Trump made it clear that he would take this route, we talked over how we would handle things in the FiveThirtyEight newsroom.
Here’s where we landed: If Trump falsely or prematurely declares victory … our priorities would be (i) don’t let Trump’s false/premature claim dominate our coverage or alter our framing of the night, while (ii) still making clear to readers why the claim is false/premature and carries no legal power.
We’ll see what Trump says in his statement, but those are our guiding principles. To be clear: Votes will continue to be counted — a perfectly normal and legitimate electoral process — and we won’t know who won until those final results are in. And Trump’s read on the race doesn’t affect any of the actual mechanics of how the U.S. elects presidents.