TV STATIONS cut away from Donald Trump last night as he continued to peddled claims that the Democrats are "stealing the election" without providing any evidence.
ABC, CBS and NBC all cut from the President as he lashed out at what he called a "fraudulent" election steered by the Democrats in cahoots with "big media, big money and big tech".
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MSNBC’s Brian Williams interrupted the President and said: "Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the President of the United States."
"There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of."
NBC's Lester Holt said: "We have to interrupt here, because the president has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting.
"There has been no evidence of that."
CBS’ Norah O’Donnell cut away to ask correspondent Nancy Cordes to fact-check Trump’s claim that “legal votes” were counted, he would easily win the election.
Cordes said Trump’s reference to votes arriving late was "another falsehood".
ABC's White House correspondent Jonathan Karl said there was no evidence of illegal votes.
He said after the station's coverage: "What he seems to be frustrated by is … that it takes time to count votes.
"It’s always taken time to count votes. But especially in this election."
Bitter Trump alleged "tremendous corruption" in the vote, singling out mail-in ballots which he suggested were suspicious in being "overwhelmingly" for rival Joe Biden.
The President told reporters: "If you count the legal votes I easily win. If you count the illegal votes – they can try to steal the election from us."
Trump vowed he would not allow unfounded "corruption to steal such an important election" or "silence" GOP voters after debunked voter fraud claims flooded social media.
Their nail-biting battle continues as:
- Republicans blast Trump for 'dangerous' vote fraud comments
- Biden says has "no doubt" he’ll win once the votes are counted
- Trump Jr says US "should go to total war" as Biden nears a win
- Pelosi "will be sworn-in as Potus if results don't meet the deadline
- National Guard deployed to "streets of rage" in major US cities
"They did the mail in ballots where there's tremendous corruption and fraud going on," he raged. "I told everybody that these things would happen."
"I've already decisively won," Trump insisted, hours after Biden said he had "no doubt" he had won the nail-biting battle for the Oval Office.
Citing his victories in Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa, Trump declared that there was "no blue wave that they predicted" as he touted Republican gains in the House.
"Democrats are the party of the big donors, the big media, and big tech," he told reporters, as the counting continues in key states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona today.
"The Republicans have become the party of the American worker," Trump added, before slamming the "phony" media polling, which he claimed was "election interference in the truest sense of that word."
Right now, the former vice president is 17 electoral votes short of an Oval Office victory.
Biden could win the election if he secures Georgia's 16 electoral votes while maintaining his current lead in Arizona.
Trump's leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia are dramatically shrinking to just 18,229 and 665 votes respectively.
Biden is sill leading in Nevada and Arizona by 11,438 and 47,052 votes.
While the President ranted from his podium, rival Biden moved to 3.8million votes ahead of him and inched closer to clinching several crucial states that are yet to declare.
Biden issued a blistering statement on Twitter after Trump's address, writing: "No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever.
"America has come too far, fought too many battles, and endured too much to let that happen."
But Trump's son Donald Jr called for a "total war" as the numbers rolled in from remaining states and POTUS claimed the "voting apparatus in those states run, in all cases, by Democrats" and the "corrupt democratic machine."
He added that the Republicans were "winning in all the key locations by a lot" but "our numbers miraculously started getting whittled away."
'DANGEROUS' DON
But the President was quickly blasted by senior Republicans accusing him of undermining the US electoral system with his "dangerous" and "incendiary" comments.
Former GOP Senator Rick Santorum told CNN that "counting ballots is not fraud," however, and he described Trump's statements as "dangerous."
“What the President just did was wrong and very dangerous," Santorum said. "It’s time for other Republicans to stand up to him."
Maryland's Republican Governor Larry Hogan also condemned the President's statements yesterday evening, tweeting that there was "no defense" for undermining the democratic election process.
"America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before," Hogan wrote. "No election or person is more important than our Democracy."
US attorneys who served under other GOP presidents also pushed back on Trump's "premature, baseless, and reckless about the vote in Pennsylvania and elsewhere."
"For any candidate, let alone the President of the United States, to claim victory before justification before each and every vote is counted is imprudent and irresponsible," their statement read.
"Therefore, we hereby call upon the President to patiently and respectfully allow the lawful voting 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."
Likewise, former US Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and former GOP Governor of PA Tim Ridge also condemned Trump's premature declaration of victory.
"With his remarks from the White House tonight, the President disrespected every single American who figured out a way to safely vote amid a pandemic that has taken 235,000 lives," tweeted the Vietnam veteran.
"Not to mention those who are dutifully counting that vote. Absolutely shameful. Yet so predictable."
RECOUNT RULES
Joe Biden has a slender lead over Donald Trump in the race to 270 electoral votes.
The Democrat has so far flipped three states that Trump won in 2016 – Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.
But the President wants a recount of votes in Wisconsin and has filed lawsuits to stop vote counting in both Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The recount of votes can be complicated because the guidelines are set at state and sometimes local levels.
THE RULES
Wisconsin – a recount cannot be requested until election results are verified on December 1. State rules also dictate that a recount can only be requested by a candidate if the race is separated by a margin of one per cent or less.
Michigan – the state conducts an automatic recount if candidates are separated by a margin of 2,000 total votes or less. To get a recount by request, a campaign must submit a petition over alleged fraud or counting errors within 48 hours.
Pennsylvania – the state only provides an automatic recount if the race is separated by a margin of 0.5% or less, or if election officials find irregularities in the results
Georgia – a candidate can request a recount if the margin is less than 0.5% and that request must be made within two day of the results being certified.
Meanwhile, another unnamed Trump adviser reportedly told CNN's Jim Acosta that "the math isn't there, we need an act of god to win this race" after his DC address.
After his press conference concluded, Acosta could be heard asking Trump "are you just being a sore loser" as the President left the podium.
He has also threatened "a lot of litigation" that could end up at "the highest court in the land" after filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.
A federal judge yesterday denied the Trump campaign's attempt to stop the vote count in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but Judge Paul S. Diamond allowed both sides to observe the fraught tally.
Earlier, a bullish Biden declared that he would be the 46th President "when the count is finished" as rifle-wielding protestors stormed vote centers and he edged ahead in Nevada, narrowing Trump's lead in PA and GA.
Speaking in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, beside Harris, Biden said: "We continue to feel very good about where things stand.
"We have no doubt that when the count is finished Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners," he said. "So I ask everyone to stay calm. All people to stay calm.
"The process is working. The count is being completed. And we will know very soon.”
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