Analysis: Trump brings his nonsense about mail-in ballots to Republicans’ Virginia defeat | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump has lied for years that elections Republicans lost fair and square were “rigged” by mail-in ballots. On Wednesday, he brought his familiar playbook to the aftermath of the Virginia redistricting referendum Republicans lost on Tuesday. As with Trump’s many lies about the 2020 election he lost, his narrative about the Virginia defeat doesn’t hold up to even the most basic of scrutiny. Here’s some of what Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday afternoon: “A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!” It’s true that the “No” side preferred by Trump and most other Republicans – the side that wanted to reject a new temporary gerrymandered congressional map that will likely mean Democrats win additional US House seats in the midterms – was leading in the Virginia vote count for a bit over an hour and a half after polls closed around 7 p.m. on Tuesday. But that do