Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said President Donald Trump would not be able to prematurely declare an election victory.
According to Fox News, Biden responded on Sunday to a report by Axios claiming that if Trump appears to be ahead on Tuesday night, he plans to declare victory then, even if the final vote tallies are not finished. Biden said, “My response is the president is not going to steal this election.”
According to Axios, Trump himself has denied the Axios report’s claim that he would declare victory prematurely. Trump was asked about the claims he would prematurely declare victory while fielding questions from members of the press on Sunday night. Trump said, “No no, that’s a false report, we’ll look at what happens.”
“I think it’s terrible that we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election,” Trump said.
The Hill tweeted video of Trump’s response to the press. “President Trump: ‘I think it’s terrible that we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election.'”
President Trump: “I think it’s terrible that we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election.” pic.twitter.com/YTAlDRjNzE
— The Hill (@thehill) November 1, 2020
Trump went on to raise concerns about the potential for fraud after election day
Trump said, “We’re going to go in the night of, as soon as that election’s over, we’re going in with our lawyers. But we don’t want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy, and we don’t want to have other states like Nevada, where you have the head of the Demoratic clubhouse as your governor — we don’t want to be in a position where he’s allowed to every day watch ballots come in and say ‘gee if only we could fine 10,000 more ballots.'”
Voting in the U.S. election ends on election day, Nov. 3, however key battleground states could take days to finalize their election results. Twenty-three states, including several election battlegrounds, are accepting mailed ballots for several days after election day, so long as they are postmarked in time for their state’s mail-in deadlines. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing Pennsylvania and North Carolina, two key battleground states, to continue to receive mailed ballots after election day, as long as they are postmarked in time.
Axios reported some election prognosticators believe Trump will appear ahead in Pennsylvania on election night but that the state’s final vote count could change substantially after election night as late-arriving mail-in ballots come in. Axios further reported Trump’s campaign team plans to claim the election was stolen if the vote count swings away from his favor.
The Trump campaign’s communications director Tim Murtaugh told Axios, “This is nothing but people trying to create doubt about a Trump victory. When he wins, he’s going to say so.”
Fox reported Biden’s campaign is preparing for potential legal battles after the election. Biden’s legal team will reportedly be led by Dana Remus, Biden’s general counsel on the 2020 campaign, and Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel during the Obama administration.
