Speaking just a short while ago at the White House, where he is watching the results come in.

He addressed supporters on DSO said.

Frankly, they had one with many states still undeclared.

He called the election process of major fraud on our nation and said that he plans to contest it in the Supreme Court.

Let's listen, so we'll be going to the U.

S.

Supreme Court.

We want all voting to stop.

We don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list.

Okay?

And let's bring in now our team coverage.

Jessica, you know heck joins us.

She's a professor of American history at Berlin's Free University, and Richard Walker from D.

W.

Is also joining us here in the studio.

Richard, respond to what Donald Trump just said there.

Is it accurate?

Well, no, I mean, he said that we want voting all voting to stop in this country, and voting has stopped.

S O.

I mean, what he's trying to do is to undermine, uh, belief in the electoral system as it is playing out.

He's trying to throw into question the validity Uh, particularly off early votes, which were cast to, particularly in thes close states where there's no announced result being called.

Yet.

He's trying Thio throw those into doubt because presumably he believes that the majority of those early votes which, uh, projections do seem to bear out our votes for Joe Biden and rather for him rather than for him.

So essentially, what he would like to do is to kind of have all kind of counting halted in these states because in these crucial states of, for instance, Wisconsin of Pennsylvania and Michigan, if you look at the latest tally so far, Trump is ahead in those states.

But those are states that haven't yet really or until today started counting the great number of early votes, which had come in either by mail or in person.

And he would, you know, ideally for him, they would sort of make a cut now to say, Okay, the votes that were cast today we're for Trump.

He wins the state s Oh, this is curing up a legal battle.

It's not a huge surprise, you know, there were concerns that this would happen for Trump has been threatening it for some time, but it's a reality now.

This is what's gonna happen.

Put this into the broader context for us.

Jessica.

Have we seen this before?

Well, we have, but maybe not in living memory and sort of speak e mean The profile of Trump is in many ways a profile off a president who could have well survived and in fact been very successful in the 19th century as well.

The campaign that we have seen, you know, with this slander, its directness.

It's public display of really deep seeded animosity is also something that we've seen quite a bit in American history, notably in the 19th century.

We're just not used to these types any, um, any more Elections have been closed.

World first couple of elections in American history where terribly cause much more, maybe, than what we've seen, what we're seeing now or what we've seen for years ago, 20 years ago.

What's new here and I think this is really historic, is the mix.

It's kind of the recipe.

Put all of this together.

You know, the slanders campaign, the narcissistic president, the deep division off the country, Um, and you get what you're seeing right now, but in a highly explosive brand.

Um, that is actually very, very dangerous.

And I think what we really have to be aware off that all of this didn't matter as much as long as the presidency was not a very powerful position.

19th century presidents weren't very powerful, but they are now.

And so if you have 1/19 century candidate and you put him on the 21st century position you're in for a dynamic relationship.

And not 19th century America also wasn't very powerful.

21st century America is, you know, it's the superpower that affect everyone around the world.

So you know, if if America is in for a period of really deep political instability even deeper than we've already witnessed over the last couple of months or even four years, you could say that's destabilizing for the world.

What is the potential for sort of a worst case scenario?

Would you say, Richard, Because, I mean, we have seen the images coming across the country.

In the United States, we have seen shops boarded up.

We have seen major landmarks boarded up, For example, um, the nation's seems to be bracing for the worst.

Could we see that?

Well, it depends.

What?

What do you call the worst case scenario?

Violence on the streets, protesters on the streets, on the street?

Anger?

We're not at that stage yet, but it's it's completely feasible.

We've already seen violence on the street this year.

We've seen people killed on the streets of America this year, So why shouldn't that happen in these circumstances?

I think there's a very significant risk of that.

That means that, you know, Donald Trump and Joe Biden both have a very serious responsibility in how they manage this because they set the tone.

Why is the mood so tense, Jessica?

Because the country is so divided.

I mean, if you think about past elections, the one that comes to mind, the closest one is 18 60 that's the one right before the Civil War.