Former President Donald Trump’s final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw the Republican presidential nominee urging supporters to head to the polls while also again casting doubt on the security of the electoral process.
Multiple times throughout Trump’s speech he told supporters to go out to the polls “tomorrow.” However, given the rally was happening after midnight, people in the crowd started yelling “today” and then Trump falsely said the election was happening on Wednesday.
Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump gestures after a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena on Nov. 5, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Evan Vucci/AP
“It sounds so much better when you say tomorrow, Wednesday,” Trump said. “But that’s okay. I want to be exactly accurate for them, but go out today and vote. And I guess seven o’clock or whatever, whatever time it is, doesn’t matter, and we’re going to have the greatest victory in the history of our country.”
Trump then suggested that his supporters might be to blame if he does not defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.
“There’s nothing they can do” if Republicans turn out, Trump said of his opponents. “In other words, to make you feel a little guilty, we would only have you to blame.” Later, Trump claimed he has the “silent majority” and urged his supporters to “speak up.”
The former president also again cast doubt on the security of voting machines, despite officials and experts confirming the security of the election system.
“Perhaps I will be president in less than 24 hours, or maybe it will take these machines that we pay so much for two weeks,” Trump said, claiming that paper ballots would be cheaper, faster and more secure.
“What the hell is happening in the inside of those machines?” he continued. “If you wait, we want the answer tomorrow, tonight,” Trump said, quickly correcting himself. “We want the answer tonight.”
“You have to cheat,” Trump said about Democrats. “Who the hell is going to approve that stuff? Who’s going to prove open borders with criminals pouring into our country by the millions now they have to cheat. They have to cheat, and they do, and they do it very well, actually.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
