Philadelphia Convention Center Attack Plot Foiled During Ballot Count: Reports

Philadelphia police are investigating a possible plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center where votes are being counted in the presidential election, according to ABC 6.

The news came as the 2020 presidential election count in Philly comes down to the wire, and not long after President Donald Trump held a press conference to allege, without providing concrete evidence, that he is being cheated out of the election. Pennsylvania, a must-win state for Trump at this point, has been a focal point of the president’s legal filings and rhetoric.

It’s not clear whether the armed people involved in the alleged plot were Trump or Joe Biden supporters, however. We wrote the Philadelphia police public affairs office to ask that and other questions but haven’t yet heard back. The Philadelphia Convention Center was the site of protests earlier in the day.

The incident occurred on November 5.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Alleged Plot May Have Involved a Family in a Hummer

According to ABC 6, which first broke the story, police received a tip that the group, “possibly a family,” had driven to Philadelphia from Virginia to attack the center.

The family is from Virginia, the television station reported, and a man was taken into custody, although it’s not clear for what. Police recovered a weapon and Hummer, according to ABC 6.

In the live broadcast, the ABC 6 journalist described how people were accused of “driving up from Virginia armed. Their plan was to attack the convention center while they continued to count votes.” He said that a gun was in a bag. The television station ran video footage of police leading the man away and a Hummer parked on the side of the street.

More details were not yet clear. This story is being updated as more information is learned.

Journalist Scott Stedman wrote on Twitter, “Dozens of police have arrived at the convention center and appear to be there out of an abundance of caution.”

Earlier, Trump Raised Voter Fraud Concerns

You can watch Trump’s press conference above.

The president claimed he won the election. However, that is not clear, and Joe Biden leads the Electoral College with ballots still being counted in many very close states, including Pennsylvania. Others have criticized Trump’s rhetoric, including some Republicans. For example, Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, tweeted, “There is no defense for the President’s comments…undermining our Democratic process. America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before. No election or person is more important than our Democracy.”

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count all of the votes who came in late, we are looking at those very closely,” said Trump.

Trump slammed “election interference from big media, big money and big tech.”

“There was no big blue wave they predicted. That was false. That was done for suppression reasons,” said Trump. “… We kept the Senate … we did a fantastic job with the Senate … for the first time ever, we lost zero races in the House … More Republican women were elected to Congress than ever before … I won the largest share of non-white voters of any Republican in 60 years, including historic numbers of Latino, African American, Asian American, and Native American voters. The largest ever in our history. We grew our party …”

He slammed the polls that inflated Biden’s margin. “Democrats are the party of the big donors, the big media, and big tech … we are the party of inclusion.”

Trump said his numbers were “whittled away in secret.” He called mail-in voting a “corrupt system.”

“We can’t allow anyone to silence our voters,” he said.

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