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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Seasons_Total_Landscaping_press_conference
Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Seasons_Total_Landscaping_press_conference
Contributors to Wikimedia projects
Four Seasons Total Landscaping
press conference
Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference given by Rudy Giuliani
Date November 7, 2020
Time 11:30 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time)
Duration 37:21
Venue Four Seasons Total Landscaping
Location Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates 40.0262°N 75.0301°W
Type Press conference
Motive Discussion of the status of the Trump campaign's legal challenges to the ballot-counting process in the state
Organized by Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign
Participants
Rudy Giuliani
Corey Lewandowski
Republican poll-watchers[a]
News media
On November 7, 2020, four days after the United States presidential election, Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and an attorney for then-president Donald Trump, hosted a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a small business in the Holmesburg neighborhood of Near Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event was held at the company's garage door and parking lot to discuss the status of the Trump campaign's legal challenges to the ballot-counting process in the state, where the president's apparent lead over Joe Biden in the first ballots counted had shifted to a shortfall as mailed-in ballots were counted for Philadelphia, historically a heavily Democratic city.
The site of the press conference, a local landscaping business, was unexpected. Many journalists and others quickly observed a comical aspect to its location, near a sex shop and a crematorium. This site selection led to speculation that the Trump campaign meant to book the upscale Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia, five city blocks from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where Philadelphia's ballots were being counted. Shortly after Giuliani began talking to the assembled reporters, the Associated Press projected Biden as the winner of the Pennsylvania vote and thus the nationwide election. Several news outlets characterized the event as the symbolic end of Trump's presidency.[2][3][4]
The event was ridiculed by journalists and users of social media. It garnered further ridicule after it emerged that one of the witnesses who spoke at the event was a convicted sex offender.[5] It resulted in lawyers withdrawing from the legal team that the Trump campaign had assembled to challenge the election results. In response to the press conference, a Four Seasons-themed charity run was created, and the landscaping company capitalized on the newfound attention by selling T-shirts and other merchandise.
Background
After Election Day on November 3, 2020, Philadelphia election officials had set up absentee ballot counting efforts in the Pennsylvania Convention Center[6] in Center City, as downtown Philadelphia is known locally.[7] The streets in the area had been filled with demonstrators supporting each candidate.[8]
On November 5, campaign spokespeople Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi attempted to talk to the media just outside the convention center about a court ruling that allowed campaign observers to stand closer to the counting tables.[9] Pro-Biden demonstrators nearby played Beyoncé's "Party" so loudly that Bondi could not be heard.[4] Lewandowski decided the Trump campaign needed to find a venue where such disruption was less likely, in a part of the city where voters had been more supportive of Trump's candidacy.[10]
Early on November 7, Trump tweeted the location of the press conference as "Four Seasons". Shortly afterwards he issued another tweet, clarifying that the venue was Four Seasons Total Landscaping.[b][10][11] One of the president's tweets that identifies the landscaping business as the site for the press conference reads: " 'Four Season’s Landscaping! Big press conference today in Philadelphia at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — 11:30am!' ” [12] According to The New York Times, Trump's team had intended to hold the press conference at the landscaper business but the president thought they meant the upscale Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia in Center City. "In reality, the mistake was not in the booking, but in a garbled game of telephone," The New York Times wrote.[13][14] At 10:45 a.m., the hotel verified that the event was at the landscapers.[b][10]
PBS reporter Daniel Bush said an unnamed company representative told him the Trump campaign had called the landscapers and said their location "was close to an exit on I-95, and was secure, and that's why they wanted to use it."[13] The local Republican ward leader told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he was not notified in advance and that neither Four Seasons' owner Marie Siravo nor anyone in her family were particularly involved in local politics. She had expressed support for Trump on a Facebook page in August, but was not exceptionally vocal, saying "we don't need to invite him for dinner."[10]
It was later revealed that an hour before the event was first announced, a Trump staffer had called the former director of sales at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, Sean Middleton, to ask if the company would be willing to host a news conference. After getting permission from the owner Marie, Middleton drove to the venue to meet with Michael Siravo, director of operations and Marie Siravo's son. The meeting lasted around 10 minutes, at which point the venue was decided on.[b][15]
Event
Journalists who arrived took note of the surrounding neighborhood. "It was in that part of town that every town has, where businesses which have no right being grouped together nonetheless gather due to one reason or another—usually the cheap rent" observed the British newspaper The Independent.[2] Four Seasons is on the same block as a sex shop, across the street from a crematorium, and down the road from the Philadelphia Department of Prisons.[16] Giuliani did not offer any explanation as to why the news conference was being held at that location.[10]
In Four Seasons' parking lot, with help from Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi,[17] a lectern had been set up in front of a garage door papered over with Trump campaign signs in red and blue. Speakers and a microphone had been installed. Giuliani and Lewandowski came in with a group of people the former identified as poll watchers who they said had been prevented from properly observing the counting procedure.[4] In reference to the poll watchers, Giuliani stated "this is only two or three of about 50 people so far that have given us statements, affidavits, recordings. We're going to have many, many witnesses."[a][18] Also in attendance was a personal friend of Giuliani's,[19] Bernard Kerik, who had recently received a full presidential pardon for offenses including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.[20][21]
Before the press conference began, a journalist present announced that CNN had just projected Biden's victory.[2] During the event, while Giuliani was stating how strong their case was,[18] a reporter interrupted to say that all of the major news networks were now joining in projecting Biden's victory. Giuliani asked "Who was it called by?" Sky News correspondent Mark Stone replied by saying "All the networks."[22][23] Giuliani then responded by looking heavenward and striking a pose of mock crucifixion,[24] saying:
All the, oh my goodness, all the networks. Wow! All the networks! We have to forget about the law. Judges don't count. All the networks, all the networks. All the networks thought Biden was going to win by 10%. Gee, what happened? Come on, don't be, don't be ridiculous. Networks don't get to decide elections, courts do.[1]
Giuliani also expressed in reference to Trump that "Obviously he's not going to concede when at least 600,000 ballots are in question."[25] As he spoke, some reporters began packing their equipment and leaving, before he had finished and the poll watchers had spoken.[4]
Allegations
See also: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election
43,522 views Nov 17, 2020
Rudy Giuliani, Attorney for President Donald Trump, gives press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Presser soundbites include:
"So, I’m here on behalf of the Trump Campaign, as an attorney for the President, to describe to you the first part of a situation that is extremely troubling, first of all for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and then for a number of other states. And these lawsuits will be brought starting on Monday."
"As you know, from the very beginning, the mail-in ballots were the source of some degree of skepticism, if not a lot of skepticism, as being innately prone to fraud."
"With all that, you would have expected there'd be a high degree of security and a high degree of inspection that would be provided for mail-in ballots. Instead in the wisdom of the officials, Democrat officials here in a city that's been Democratic for 60 years and has a very long history of voter fraud, documented history of voter fraud, instead of going to a high degree of care to allow inspections of the mail-in ballots. There was no inspection of a single mail-in ballot."
"This is outrageous, an enormously important contest with a very, very suspect method of voting. There was no security. Zero."
"The case that we would file this, that many cases are going to be filed, some big, some small. This is going to be eventually a big case because it will go beyond Pennsylvania. But right now, the case is a civil rights case. It will be filed in federal court. I'm sorry. It'll be filed in federal court. You could file it here or Pittsburgh. That will be the choice of our of our lawyer who's looking at it now."
"But in almost every state where President Trump had a lead going into the end of election night, some of the leads looking almost mathematically impossible to undo with the five percent, 10 percent of the vote. In almost all of those, just practice was followed. And I'm right now trying to find did we get to see any ballots that were used for that purpose. If that's the case, then we have a massive nationwide lawsuit. So it could affect more than one state."
Reporter: "Why do you think this legal challenge are enough to overturn the call that has already been made for Joe Biden?"
Giuliani: "The poll?"
Reporter: "The call. The call, It was called for Joe Biden."
Giuliani: "Because they don't decide the election, the call for Joe Biden…who was it called by?"
Reporter: "All the networks."
Giuliani: "Oh my goodness. All the networks. Wow! All the networks. We have to forget about the law. Judges don't count. All the networks. All the networks. All the networks thought Biden was going to win by 10%. Gee, what happened? Come on. Don't be, don't be ridiculous. Networks don't get to decide elections. Courts do."
You can license this story through AP Archive - story number is G13189
https://youtu.be/7QTRO9MG6z8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Seasons_Total_Landscaping_press_conference
Notes
The only people to speak out of the group of poll watchers were: Daryl Brooks, Matt Silver, and Lisette Tarragano.[1]
Timeline of notable moments (all times are EST and begin in the morning of November 7, 2020):
8:45 - Sean Middleton, director of sales at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, gets a call from a Trump staffer surveying areas along the I-95 corridor, asking if the company would be willing to host a news conference.[99][100]
9:30 - Four Seasons Total Landscaping staff meet with the Trump team to assess the venue.[100]
9:35 - Donald Trump posts a tweet, but then deletes it 5 minutes later at 9:41: "Lawyers Press Conference at Four Seasons, Philadelphia. 11:00 A.M."[101][102]
9:40 - At the venue, the Trump team confirms that Four Seasons Total Landscaping is "the perfect location” for the conference.[100]
9:43 - Trump replies to the previous tweet with a clarification, but then deletes 1 minute later at 9:45: "Four Season's Landscaping!"[101][103]
9:45 - Trump tweets: "Big press conference today in Philadelphia at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — 11:30am!"[101][104]
10:00 - Trump tweets, but then deletes 6 minutes later at 10:06: "Lawyer's Press Conference at Four Season's Landscaping, Philadelphia. Enjoy!"[101][105]
10:45 - Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia tweet a clarification: "To clarify, President Trump's press conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia. It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping— no relation with the hotel."[106]
10:55 - Rudy Giuliani arrives on site and sets up a war room in the front office.[100]
11:30 - The scheduled start time, as set by the only tweet regarding the event that was not deleted.[101][104]
11:50 - The press conference begins.[107]
12:19 - Giuliani is informed that the election has been called by "all the networks".
12:27 - The press conference ends.
Corey Lewandowski had previously stated under oath before a House Judiciary Committee, that he has "no obligation" to tell the truth to the media.[34]