Trump denies report that he would declare poll victory early, indicates gearing up for legal battle

Team Udayavani, Nov 2, 2020, 9:30 AM IST

Fayetteville: US President Donald Trump on Sunday denied that he is planning to prematurely declare victory after the presidential polls are over on Tuesday, but hinted that he is gearing up for a legal battle post the election.

“No, no that was a false report,” Trump told reporters at the Charlotte airport in North Carolina amidst a news report that he is planning to prematurely declare victory on the election night. At the same time, he indicated that his team is gearing up for a legal battle on the election night itself.

“I think it is a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it is a terrible thing when people or states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over because it can only lead to one thing,” Trump said.

“We are going in the night of — as soon as the election is over — we are going in with our lawyers,” he said as he criticised the decision taken by the Supreme Court to allow ballots to be received after Election Day in several battleground states.

“I think there is a great danger to it and I think a lot of fraud and misuse can take place,” the president said. “I think it is a very dangerous, terrible thing. And I think it is terrible when we cannot know the results of an election the night of the election in a modern-day age of computers. I think it is a terrible thing,” he added.

Critical of the Supreme Court decision, Trump said: “I think it is a very dangerous decision because you are going to have one or two or three states, depending on how it ends up, where they are tabulating ballots, and the rest of the world is waiting to find out. And I think there is a great danger to it, and I think a lot of fraud and misuse could take place.”

Trump said if people wanted to get their ballots in, they should have gotten their ballots in long before. “They do not have to put their ballots in the same day, they could have put their ballots in a month ago. And we think it is a ridiculous decision,” he said.

The president said he is doing well in the election. “We have great crowds. The first two were extremely cold. But they are great people, so that warmed it up,” he said.

“We are doing tremendous numbers. Florida is doing very well. Ohio, as you heard, is doing phenomenally well. I think we are ahead in Ohio from four years ago, and we won by eight. If you look at North Carolina, we are doing great. I think we are doing well all over,” he asserted.

“Georgia…is in our camp all the way. Texas is beyond good. We seem to be doing well all over. And that is not based on polls, that is based on numbers based on early ballots. So we are very happy with it. I think Michigan is plus-two, it just came out. We are plus-two in Michigan. We are really doing incredibly well,” Trump said.