He knew. Bernie Sanders knew. Everything that’s happened so far in the US presidential election seems to have been predicted – almost word-for-word – in an interview with Jimmy Fallon last month.
A clip from Bernie’s interview on The Tonight Show has now gone viral because of how accurately the Vermont Senator predicted the ongoing chaos that is holding the future of the most powerful nation of the world in limbo.
Bernie was right, and we should’ve listened.
https://twitter.com/onikasgivenchy/status/1323857811734933504
This specific clip uploaded today has gotten over eight million views and has been shared and retweeted in hundreds of thousands of posts. Suffice to say, it’s struck a chord.
Let’s break it down.
“You’re gonna have a situation – I suspect – in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, other states, where they are going to be receiving huge amounts of mail-in ballots,” Sanders said.
“And unlike states like Florida or Vermont, there’re not able, for bad reasons, to begin processing those ballots until – I don’t know – election day, or maybe when the polls close.
“That means you’re gonna have states dealing with perhaps millions of mail-in ballots.”
We knew this much heading into the election, with over 93 million Americans opting for the more reasonable option of voting by mail, considering there’s a pandemic going on.
“Here is my worry,” Sanders continued.
“What polls show and what studies show is that, for whatever reason, Democrats are more likely to use mail-in ballots, Republicans are more likely to walk into polling booths on election day.
“It is likely that the first votes that will be counted will be those people who came in on election day, which will be Republican.”
So far… this is exactly what’s happened. Early on in the count, certain states appeared to swing Republican when in actual fact it was more due to what kind of vote (mail-in vs. in-person) had been cast.
“And here is the feat – and I hope everybody hears that – it could well be that at 10 o’clock on election night, Trump is winning in Michigan, he’s winning in Pennsylvania, he’s winning in Wisconsin, and he gets on the television and says: ‘Thank you, Americans, for re-electing me! It’s all over, have a good day!’” Sanders said.
“But then the next day, and the day following, all of those mail-in ballots start getting counted, and it turns out that Biden has won those states.
“At which point Trump says, ‘See? I told you the whole thing was fraudulent, I told you those mail-in ballots were crooked, and we’re not gonna leave office!’
“So that is a worry that I and a lot of people have.”
Here’s the thing. Trump, being the madman that he is, has already given this speech.
“This is a fraud on the American public… we were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election”
Trump claims election victory, but with millions of uncounted votes it is too early to credibly make that claim#Election2020 https://t.co/fVQ13KG8wT pic.twitter.com/144C0V4VTz
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 4, 2020
He said exactly what Sanders predicted he would say: that the use of mail-in ballots is somehow fraudulent (it’s not), that he’s won in the states where counting is still going on, and that the whole thing should just be wound up tonight because he’s already won.
It’s terrifying, really.
Now, watch this: it’s CNN presenters getting stunned on-air as Joe Biden takes the lead in Wisconsin at the very list minute.
That’s thanks to the absentee ballots from Milwaukee, the state’s capital, suddenly being added to the tally.
This happened after Trump casually declared victory.
There’s a whole lot more counting to do, yet Trump reacted exactly how Bernie predicted.
Ha! Best CNN moment so far: #Wisconsin #Elections2020 pic.twitter.com/PWJ4c0bCnB
— Richard Gutjahr (@gutjahr) November 4, 2020
It remains to be seen if Trump will continue peddling this line in the coming days, and if he really will refuse to leave office, like Sanders suggested.
However Trump’s already said he’s going to contest the results in the courts, which is sure to drag things out.
If you want to see what else Bernie was right about, you can catch the full segment on The Tonight Show here.
