Last night, President Donald Trump held a press conference. He didn’t take questions, though, which is unusual for him. But his tone was defiant, utterly Trumpian, and the overriding theme of his remarks was captured in his second sentence: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

In a word, the president was talking about fraud. And his allegation that the Democrats are trying to steal the election from him may well be true, especially in light of alleged voting irregularities that have shown up across numerous battleground states. But an allegation of voter fraud calls for proof. Indeed, it demands proof. The president must therefore make a compelling case that decisive levels of voter fraud took place, and he must communicate it clearly and convincingly to the American people. Otherwise, given the shocking — and we mean shocking — news this morning that Joe Biden had overtaken the president in both Georgia and Pennsylvania, he and his team must begin the time-honored American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.

The clock is ticking.

Straight talk has always been one of Donald Trump’s most defining qualities. Millions of his supporters love this quality, and millions more hate it. Whether we find his candor endearing or infuriating, though, this much is undeniable: He’d never have become our nation’s 45th president without it. And we’d instead be writing about a second term for Hillary Clinton and a hopelessly leftist Supreme Court.

Still, when it comes to allegations of fraud, the president and his team — and all of us who support him — must stick to what is known, verified, and demonstrable. If we’re talking about contesting this election due to widespread voter fraud, Sharpiegate ain’t gonna cut it. Nor are careless claims like the one, since retracted, that 138,339 all-Biden ballots had mysteriously appeared in Michigan.

On the other hand, a popular claim circulating on social media says that Wisconsin now has more votes than registered voters. This is easily debunked when we consider that Wisconsin has same-day voter registration, which will always add voters to its total on Election Day. Moreover, it’s not even numerically true.

But just because one claim is debunked doesn’t mean that all associated claims are also debunked. For example, according to Power Line’s John Hinderaker: “If you are credulous [about the remarkably high 88% voter turnout in Wisconsin], you can believe that 21% more Wisconsinites voted this year, compared with the red-hot election of four years ago, and 248,000 more Wisconsinites turned out to vote for the charismatic Joe Biden this year than voted for Hillary Clinton four years ago. I think those numbers are almost certainly false, the result of ballot manipulation.”

Eighty-eight percent of Wisconsinites voted this year, compared to 67% in 2016? That should raise an eyebrow or two.

Other interesting claims? What about the data from the U.S. Postal Service that showed nearly 300,000 ballots were never scanned for delivery the day before Election Day?

Or what about the refusal by big-city Democrat election operatives to allow access to Republican poll observers? Or their efforts to cover their windows and thereby shield their work from lawful scrutiny?

Of course, no discussion of fraud would be complete without mentioning Philadelphia, the city we were sounding the alarm about many months ago. Philly is to fraud what the Yankees are to baseball.

“There are many instances which will be reported very shortly,” said President Trump last night at the conclusion of his remarks. “There’s tremendous litigation going on. And this is a case where they’re trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen. Detroit and Philadelphia — known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily — cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a … very important presidential race.”

The clock is ticking, Mr. President. Get your very best people on it.