WASHINGTON — With the White House in the backdrop Wednesday, President Donald Trump aired a laundry list of false claims about election fraud while he called on Vice President Mike Pence to reject Electoral College votes cast for President-elect Joe Biden in battleground states. 

For more than an hour, Trump addressed thousands of largely unmasked supporters at the Ellipse, just south of the White House, just before a joint session of Congress convened to vote on certifying the Electoral College results. More than a dozen Republican senators and 140-plus GOP House members are expected to object, which will delay Biden’s victory from becoming official but is certain not to block it.

Trump has pressed Pence, who is presiding over the certification, to reject the slate of Democrat electors who voted for Biden in states the president alleges were plagued by fraud or illegal changes to election laws.

“Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country, and if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now,” Trump said. “I’m not hearing good stories.”

Pence lacks the authority to do what Trump is asking. His role is largely ceremonial. 

Trump repeated dozens of claims he has made before about election fraud, allegations that have been debunked by fact checkers and federal and state elections officials or that have failed in dozens of unsuccessful court challenges. Among his false claims, he said thousands of votes were cast on behalf of dead people, that signatures were not verified, that voting machines were tampered with and that the voter turnout in Detroit exceeded 100%.

The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of State Election Directors have described the election as "the most secure in American history,” adding there is “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” Before resigning last month, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by bold and radical Democrats, which is what they’re doing, and stolen by the fake news media — that’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing,” the president said. “We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

Trump said he would then join protesters as they marched to the Capitol while members of Congress inside consider the Electoral College certification. According to the pool, he actually returned to the White House with his motorcade.

“We’re going to see whether we have great and courageous leaders, or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, through eternity,” the president said. “And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never, ever forget.”

While he was largely focused on his own election loss, Trump also made fresh allegations of voter fraud in Tuesday’s two Senate races in Georgia, saying Democrats “cheated like hell.” He offered no specifics or evidence to back up his claims.

Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler in Georgia, and with 98% of the vote in, Democrat Jon Ossoff leads David Perdue, also a Republican incumbent, by more than 17,000 votes. If Ossoff holds on, Democrats would take control of the Senate.

“This year, they rigged an election,” Trump said of the presidential election. “The rigged it like they’ve never rigged an election before. And by the way, last night they didn’t do a bad job, either, if you notice.”

Appearing to accept that Republicans will lose control of the Senate, Trump said having a GOP president is more important now “because the only line that we have is the veto of the president of the United States.” 

Democrats also control the House of Representatives.