Former New Jersey Governor and open supporter of President Trump, Chris Christie, responds to the President’s early declaration of victory on the morning following the election. The President then urged that votes stop being counted despite the millions that had yet to be recorded.
What We Know:
- Late into election night, Donald Trump prematurely declared himself the winner of the Presidential race, when millions of ballots had yet to be counted across the country. The President, who has regularly expressed his contempt for counting ballots after election day, has unsurprisingly demanded that votes stopped being recorded after Tuesday, claiming that doing so would be fraudulent. Due to the ongoing pandemic, millions of Americans have cast their vote via mail in order to minimize their exposure to Covid-19. These votes, depending on the state in which they are cast, may not be counted until after election day, meaning that the results will undoubtedly be delayed.
- Chris Christie, while on air for ABC News’ election coverage, blasted the President for his early declaration, claiming that “there’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn’t.” Christie, who previously endorsed Trump in 2016, draws on his expertise as a former U.S. Attorney to denounce the President’s neglect over the democratic process.
- Christie added that Trump’s decision to announce his victory on Tuesday was a “bad strategic decision”. He added that “There comes a point where you have to let the process play itself out before you judge it to have been flawed. I think by prematurely doing this, if there is a flaw in it later, he has undercut his own credibility in calling attention to that flaw.”
- The former New Jersey Governor is not the only one of Trump’s comrades to disagree with the President’s actions. Following the President’s remarks about winning the election and urging ballot-counting to stop, Vice President Mike Pence seemingly deterred from Trump’s claims by stating that ballots are continuing to be counted, but is confident that they will win another term.
Despite the President’s demands to stop counting votes and threats of taking the alleged “fraud” to the Supreme Court, votes continue to be counted in the remaining states and should hopefully be completed by Friday.
