If Donald Trump was banned from Twitter by his campaign staff, they will be grimacing at one of the first tweets sent from it on election night.
On Tuesday, as voters across the country made their way to the polls to cast their ballot in one of the most divisive and contentious electoral races in history, the Republican candidate claimed CNN had reported on a widespread “voting machine problems across [the] entire country”.
Unfortunately, this was not what CNN had reported. Instead, the network reported issues with voting machines in one county in the state of Utah - not the entire country.
One of the broadcaster’s anchors Jake Tapper made it his mission to educate Mr Trump on what was actually said live on air.
“In point of fact, CNN is not reporting that,” he said directly to the camera. “The problem is problems across the county – a county – not the country as Mr Trump tweeted. That’s the difference of an ‘R’ but kind of an important one.”
Other reporters (and actors) also corrected the 70-year-old on Twitter:
On Monday, a report in the New York Times suggested Mr Trump’s aides had taken over his Twitter account to avoid a potential blunder in the final days of the election campaign. Mr Trump is known for his colourful, unorthodox and offensive tweets.
Mr Trump’s spokesperson Kellyanne Conway denied the claims while also diverting the conversation away from the subject.
Mr Trump tweeting about any potential issues with voting is unsurprising given his continuous and unfounded claims that the US electoral system is “rigged”. On Tuesday morning, Mr Trump’s son Eric said his father will only concede victory if he thinks the election was “legit and fair”.
