President Trump on Monday called for the gubernatorial and Senate elections in Florida to be called in favor of Republican candidates Ron DeSantis and Gov. Rick Scott, respectively, claiming that “an honest vote count is no longer possible.”
Trump’s remarks come as recounts mandated by law take place in both races given the tight vote counts.
{mosads}Scott leads Sen. Bill Nelson (D) by roughly 12,500 votes, or around .02 percent of the vote. DeSantis leads Democrat Andrew Gillum by more than 33,000 votes.
Trump’s remarks suggest he thinks the recount should end. He also suggested mischief on the part of those counting the ballots, though he did not provide any specific evidence in his tweet.
“The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!” Trump tweeted.
{mosads}Trump previously has accused Democrats of trying to “steal” both races.
Scott, meanwhile, held a news conference last week in which he claimed that “unethical liberals” were attempting to “steal this election.”
“I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election,” he said.
In Florida’s heated Senate race, Scott and Nelson are in all-out warfare, with both candidates filing legal actions as they lob accusations at one another.
Scott has continued to take additional legal action, filing two emergency actions in Palm Beach and Broward counties, which are at the center of the recount.
The Republican governor requested that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and county sheriffs impound and secure vote machines and ballots when not in use. Additionally, Scott’s campaign filed a complaint in a Broward County court requesting that the county canvassing board be halted from including ballots counted after the Saturday deadline in the final vote tally.
“The Broward and Palm Beach County Supervisors of Elections has already demonstrated a blatant disregard for Florida’s elections laws, making it more important than ever that we continue to do everything possible to prevent fraud and ensure this recount is operated responsibly,” Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said in a statement.
This is on top of the lawsuits filed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) against Broward and Palm Beach election officials, claiming they violated Florida’s open-records laws.
Meanwhile, Nelson and the Democratic Executive Committee have also filed a lawsuit against Florida’s secretary of state over provisional ballots, with a hearing slated for Wednesday.
“If Rick Scott wanted to make sure every legal ballot is counted, he would not be suing to try and stop voters from having their legal ballot counted as intended,” Nelson said in a statement.
Results of the machine recount need to be submitted by Thursday at 3 p.m. If the margin between the candidates ends up within 0.25 points after the machine recount is conducted, a hand recount will be triggered.
A hand recount needs to be completed by Nov. 18, with a looming deadline of Nov. 20 to certify the final statewide results.
In a message responding to Trump on Twitter, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum accused the president of being nervous that the recount would go against the GOP.
Gillum initially conceded Tuesday night when he was trailing DeSantis by 1 point. But he withdrew his concession over the weekend as the gubernatorial recount began.