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- Prominent Republicans condemned Trump’s undemocratic statement Wednesday morning.
- Trump falsely claimed that he had already won the election. No winner has been declared and the count is in progress.
- He also announced his intention to go to the Supreme Court in an attempt to stop the count of elections.
- Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum and former Republican Governor Chris Christie criticized the statement.
- Rick Santorum told ABC: “I was very distraught by what I heard the president say.”
- Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg told CNN: “This is a harrowing time for me as a longtime Republican.”
- Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said: This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match at it. “
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Prominent Republicans and conservative commentators have joined in condemning President Trump’s false claim that he has already won the election.
Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning told a White House press conference that “frankly, we won this election.”
However, no winner has been declared and millions of votes have yet to be counted.
Trump described the fact that not all votes have been counted on election night as a “great fraud in our nation” and repeated without evidence his claim that voting by mail had led to electoral fraud.
It follows a report from last week from Axios suggesting that Trump planned to declare victory on election night if he appeared to be “ahead” on early results.
Numerous prominent Republican figures lined up to condemn Trump.
Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum said: “I was very distraught by what I heard the president say.”
He told CNN: “The president is prone, as we know, to bragging, to have fits of resentment and to be upset by the way they treat him. I have no problem … I think Joe Biden said similar things: ‘I think I won. ‘” “, and that’s cool. You think you won, that’s great.
“But the idea of using the word fraud, and the people who count the votes commit fraud, is wrong.”
He said: “I understand the president’s frustration that some of the states were not called as soon as he wanted, but at the same time he complained that one of those states was called, Arizona. I understand that the president feels it is a grievance against him. and somehow or other this is another example of the media not treating him fairly and I’ll just say that I couldn’t disagree more on this case. “
AAaron Rupar (atrupar) November 4, 2020
Former New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie echoed him, who told ABC News that speaking “not as a former governor but as a former United States attorney,” “there was simply no basis for making that argument. tonight”.
He said, “All of these votes have to be counted now. In Pennsylvania, the recount won’t even start until tomorrow or Thursday or Friday because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended for three days when the ballots are accepted. I understand there could be an argument about that’s based on Pennsylvania law, but that argument is for later. Tonight was not the time to make this argument. “
When asked if Trump’s false claim was a political move, Christie said: “It is, but it has to be bigger than that.
“I disagree with what he did tonight and Sarah is right: there comes a point where you have to let the process develop on its own before judging that it has been flawed. I think by doing this prematurely, if there is a flaw in him later has undermined his own credibility by drawing attention to that flaw.
“I think it is a bad strategic decision, it is a bad political decision and it is not the kind of decision that you would expect someone who occupies the position to make tonight.”
—ABC News (@ABC) November 4, 2020
Republican election attorney Benjamin Ginsberg told CNN that “for a president to say that we are going to disenfranchise legally cast voting is truly extraordinary” and added that “it is a distressing time for me as a longtime Republican.”
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Trump’s plan to go to the Supreme Court, the basis of which is unclear, was “extremely inflammatory and, frankly, I don’t think it’s something the courts will allow.”
He said, “This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match at it.
“He hasn’t won these states. Nobody says he won these states. The states haven’t said he won.”
“This goes back to what Joe Biden said, which is that the president cannot say he has won states; the American people can say it, state officials can declare it.”
AAaron Rupar (atrupar) November 4, 2020
Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted that Trump’s false claim that he has already won the election was “deeply irresponsible.”
The contest was too close to call at the time of this writing, with Joe Biden with 227 Electoral College votes and Trump with 213. The outcome will depend on the results in the key states on the battlefield Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin .
Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Wednesday morning described the president’s statement as “scandalous, unprecedented and incorrect” and a “naked effort to take away democratic rights from American citizens.”
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