WASHINGTON: With more votes coming in from Monroe County in eastern Pennsylvania, Trump’s margin in the state is down to 42,000 — with at least 208,000 ballots left to count statewide.
President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud drew little support from Republican officials on Thursday, with several either rebuking the president or offering statements that stopped far short of endorsing his views.
“Counting every vote is at the heart of democracy,” Senator Mitt Romney of Utah wrote on Twitter, implicitly rejecting Mr. Trump’s extraordinary call for halting vote counts in states where he leads. “Have faith in democracy, in our Constitution, and in the American people,” he said.
“All votes that comply with Pennsylvania law must be counted, regardless of how long the process takes,” Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said in a statement. Though expressing concern that Philadelphia’s vote counting “lacks transparency,” Mr. Toomey concluded that “all parties involved must accept the outcome of the election regardless of whether they won or lost.”
Nineteen former United States attorneys — all of whom served under Republican presidents — released a statement on Thursday calling President Trump’s legal threats, claims of fraud and false declarations of victory “premature, baseless and reckless.”
“We hereby call upon the president to patiently and respectfully allow the lawful vote-counting process to continue, in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, and to avoid any further comments or other actions which can serve only to undermine our democracy,” wrote the attorneys.
The attorneys countered Mr. Trump’s false suggestions that it is somehow wrong to count ballots after Election Day — something states do in every election. “Whether it takes days, or even weeks, for that process to conclude, it must be allowed to take place in a way that is open, fair and lawful, and without any improper political interference,” they said.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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