President Donald Trump on Monday demanded Florida stop its recount after last week's close gubernatorial and Senate races.
Trump, without evidence, tweeted that "large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere" and that "many ballots are missing or forged." He insisted that the Republican candidates he endorsed - Rick Scott for Senate and Ron DeSantis for governor - immediately be declared the winners.
Democrat Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor vying to be Florida's first black governor, responded to Trump.
"You sound nervous," Gillum tweeted to the president.
People were here for it.
Of course, Trump is nervous.
He should be.
As of Tuesday night, it did not appear Gillum would be able to overtake his vote deficit, and so conceded the race to DeSantis.
Now, he has a different message to his supporters:
Under Florida law, any margin of less than 0.5 percent triggers an automatic recount. The Gillum campaign on Thursday reportedly told April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks that DeSantis’s lead had dropped to less than 15,000 votes.
Scott, Florida's departing Republican governor, filed two lawsuits last week in heavily Democratic Palm Beach and Broward Counties, accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election - by counting all the votes.
People called Trump out. Declaring an election as fraudulent, sans proof, is what dictators do.
The president wants his desired outcome to be the result, no matter the votes.
Not all votes are counted on election night.
All votes deserve to be counted.
Trump only cares about Trump, others noted.
A machine recount must be completed by 3 P.M. on 11/15. If the margin is within 0.25 percent, a manual recount will take place. “In those races of what are known as undervotes and overvotes; the recounts would have to be completed by Nov. 18,” the New York Times reported last Thursday.
