President Donald Trump will be addressing the country in the evening from the White House, former WH counselor Kellyanne Conway said during an appearance on ABC News as part of the network's coverage of the presidential election.
Earlier this week, there were reports that Trump was hosting a viewing party from the East Wing with 400 people in attendance, which was later slimmed down to 250 people. Conway said that she would be attending the event, and revealed that Trump will speak to the nation late Tuesday or early Wednesday as the votes of the presidential election are tallied.
"You will hear from the president tonight, I'm headed over to the White House shortly. We'll be joined by a couple hundred people," Conway told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. "The president is expected to address the nation later from the East Room of the White House."
Déjà vu
Conway also recalled how Trump addressed the nation at about 3 a.m. in 2016 after defeating then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a stunning upset to win the presidency.
"We know that you heard from President Elect Trump at about 3 a.m.," she said. "And that's before we had this explosion of early voting and mail-in ballots in the year of 2020, the year of uncertainty, why shouldn't the presidential election be wrapped with uncertainty as well with just a few hours to go."
Communications Director Alyssa Farah said Trump will make a public appearance in some form "when the ballots are in" this evening but did not provide any other details. President Trump also told reporters during a visit to the Republican National Committee Annex in Arlington, Virginia on Tuesday that he 'maybe' would address the nation tonight, after the polls close.
Trump to Declare Early Victory?
According to a recent report published by Axios, the president plans to declare early victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he is "ahead." Trump said he will celebrate the win even if there are still uncounted votes in key states that could alter the outcome of the Electoral College in subsequent hours or days.
Although Trump later denied the report but criticized the Supreme Court rulings that allow absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day to be counted in key states like Pennsylvania as "terrible," before adding that his campaign intends to fight it legally if things don't go his way.
