World Court tells Trump: 'Calling vote unfair doesn't make it so'

A federal appeals court on Friday flatly dismissed President Donald Trump's claim that the election was unfair and refused to freeze Joe Biden's win in the key state of Pennsylvania.

© ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS A US federal appeals court said President Donald Trump has not offered any evidence to support his claims of an "unfair" election

In a scathing review of the Trump campaign's arguments that the president was cheated in his November 3 reelection bid, three appeals court judges unanimously said that allegations of unfairness were not supported by evidence.

"Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so," the court said.

Trump campaign demands 1.5 million votes get tossed in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is overseeing a federal suit where the Trump campaign wants to throw out the Pennsylvania results and have the legislature name electors.The suit, the third amended version filed in federal court, asserts that 'a substantial portion of the approximately 1.5 million absentee and mail votes' in certain counties 'should not have been counted' and that the 'vast majority of them' favored Biden,  'thus resulting in returns indicating Biden won Pennsylvania.

Federal court denied Trump campaign's request to block Joe Biden from being certified as winner of Pennsylvania's electoral votes . Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so ,' Judge wrote in ruling. All three judges who ruled on the issue were appointed by

An appeals court upheld the results of Pennsylvania's election — leading President Trump 's campaign to vow a final challenge before the Supreme Court . “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so

In appealing a lower court ruling, the Trump campaign claimed discrimination, the judges noted.

"But its alchemy cannot transmute lead into gold," the court said.

It was the latest in more than two dozen court defeats around the country for the Trump campaign and Republicans who have alleged fraud and other misconduct contributed to the president's loss.

Trump persists in arguing that Biden's clear victory is invalid.

"Just so you understand, this election was a fraud," he told reporters on Thursday.

Last week a Pennsylvania state court rejected arguments by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the millions of votes in the state should be thrown out due to fraud.

The judge in that case, however, embarrassed Giuliani by forcing him to admit that none of his precise claims before the court involved fraud or anything more than technical issues in overseeing the vote count.

Trump forges ahead with frantic effort to overturn election

Having exhausted many of his legal options, Trump is looking at other ways to subvert Joe Biden’s victory.Among their last-ditch tactics: summoning Michigan state legislators to the White House on Friday to explore an elector-replacement gambit, personally calling local election officials who are trying to rescind their certification votes in Michigan, suggesting in a legal challenge that Pennsylvania set aside the popular vote there and pressuring county officials in Arizona to delay certifying vote tallies.

President Donald Trump called into a Pennsylvania Senate hearing on election irregularities to argue that his Democratic rival Joe Biden’s apparent Trump spoke of the enormity of his legal challenge, saying a "very good lawyer" told him that it would be "a big statement" for a judge to overturn results

President Trump said Republicans lose out in mail-in voting , which several states are already using President Donald Trump took aim Wednesday at voting by mail, saying Republicans lose out in The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court order extending Wisconsin's deadline for filing absentee

On Tuesday the Pennsylvania government officially certified Biden's victory in the state, and the Trump campaign appealed to federal court to have that certification frozen.

But the appeals court said Trump's campaign had nothing substantial to argue.

"Its allegations are vague and conclusory," the judges said.

"It never alleges that anyone treated the Trump campaign or Trump votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or Biden votes."

With Biden's national lead in the popular vote and the electoral college now virtually unassailable, the court indicated that another appeal, to the US Supreme Court, would go nowhere.

"The campaign has already litigated and lost most of these issues," the court said.

"The campaign cannot win this lawsuit. It conceded that it is not alleging election fraud."

Nevertheless, Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign lawyer who worked with Giuliani on the case, tweeted their intent to appeal.

"The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud ... On to SCOTUS!" she said, referring to the Supreme Court.

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