President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave his lengthiest remarks about the election since Joe Biden was declared the winner—an unfiltered, 10-minute stream-of-conscious on why he continues to challenge the outcome—by calling into a meeting that Pennsylvania's GOP state senators held to question the election results.
"The whole world is watching us," Trump said through his attorney's cell phone as it was held up to the meeting microphone. "The whole world is watching the United States of America, and we can't let them get away with it."
Trump—who has refused to concede the election despite a growing chorus of Republicans urging him to accept defeat—abruptly canceled plans to attend the Pennsylvania meeting in person earlier in the day, but signaled that he was watching it remotely with tweeted responses.
"It's been very interesting to see what's going on," Trump said, noting he was calling from the Oval Office, after a dozen Trump supporters testified that they questioned the election outcome in Pennsylvania. "This was an election that we won easily—we won by a lot."
Biden was certified Tuesday as the winner of Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes after a run of failed challenges focused primarily on mail-in ballots and voting tabulation machines.
The final Pennsylvania vote tally was certified at 3.46 million for Biden to Trump's 3.38 million.
Trump's legal team has been unsuccessfully attempting to overturn certified results in key battleground states—with a particular focus on Pennsylvania—to try to secure a second term for the president. More than 30 lawsuits have been dismissed by judges or dropped by the campaign for various reasons.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, voting by mail increased in many states—particularly among Democrats, while Trump rejected the practice as a less-legitimate method of voting.
Trump's legal team has now begun mounting an attempt to push Republican state lawmakers to hold meetings questioning whether Democratic electors should be recognized.
According to the Trump campaign, similar meetings will be held in Arizona and Michigan next week, though details are still being finalized.
Wednesday's gathering was officially a meeting of the Pennsylvania Legislature's Senate Majority Policy Committee. But it was plugged by Trump's campaign in advance and frequently punctuated with cheers from the crowd, with Trump attorney Rudy Giuiliani facilitating much of the discussion.
"I know crooks really well. You give 'em an inch and they take a mile," Giuiliani said during the hearing, as he argued that there was an intentional misdeeds in the handling of the Pennsylvania election. "You give them a mile and they take your whole country."
He repeatedly accused Democrats of "stealing" the election for President-elect Biden, though his attempt to make such a case has been repeatedly rejected in courts led by both conservative and liberal judges.
"Under normal circumstances, your state would have been called for Trump," Giuiliani said.
Biden, who was broadcasting a live Thanksgiving greeting on Wednesday from Delaware, didn't respond to Newsweek's request for comment through his transition team's press office.
