Is Trump Nervous? President-Elect Lashes Out at ‘Ridiculous’ Recount Efforts

Stein Vows to ‘Recount in Any State Where the Deadline Has Not Passed’

Donald Trump and his transition team appear to be nervous after Green Party candidate Jill Stein‘s fundraising campaign to recount the vote in three states – where a combined total of 107,000 votes would tilt the election to Hillary Clinton – is quickly nearing $6 million in donations. After telling voters for months the election was “rigged,” a much different Trump on Saturday attacked efforts to ensure it was not, now that at least one recount will take place, with others appearing to be close to happening.

Stein on Friday successfully filed for a recount of the vote in Wisconsin, and she’s said she intends to have the votes in Michigan and Pennsylvania recounted also.

But, perhaps fueled by the stunning outpouring of cash toward her recount campaign, or perhaps seeing it as an opportunity to grow her email database and fund the Green Party’s coffers, Stein late Saturday afternoon vowed to have any state recounted where the deadline has not passed:

Federal law requires any recounts to be completed by December 13, one week before the Electoral College meets.

Minutes earlier, Trump called Stein’s recount campaign “ridiculous,” a “scam,” and a way “to fill her coffers with money.” Perhaps attempting to pit others who ordinarily would respond with derision toward his comments, Trump even quoted his Democratic opponent’s words.

“The people have spoken and the election is over,” the president-elect announced ignoring the fact that Clinton won the popular vote, and is on track to beat him by at least 2.5 million votes. He continued, adding, “as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, ‘We must accept this result and then look to the future.'”

“The results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused,” Trump concluded, “which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing.”

The president-elect isn’t the only one on Team Trump who’s appearing nervous. Former campaign spokesperson Kellyanne Conway, now a Trump senior aide, called the Clinton campaign “a pack of sore losers” on the news that the Clinton campaign will participate in Stein’s recount in Wisconsin.

“What a pack of sore losers,” Conway said in a statement to Bloomberg. “After asking Mr. Trump and his team a million times on the trail, ‘Will HE accept the election results?’ it turns out Team Hillary and their new BFF Jill Stein can’t accept reality.”

Conway apparently made her remarks not having read the Clinton campaign’s actual statement, and forgetting that Clinton graciously conceded to Trump the night of the election.

General counsel Marc Erik Elias announced the Clinton team’s decision late Saturday morning, making clear the campaign does not expect the results to change, but rather will participate “to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides.”

In a exceptionally malicious attack, even for Conway, she continued, saying, “Rather than adhere to the tradition of graciously conceding and wishing the winner well, they’ve opted to waste millions of dollars and dismiss the democratic process. The people have spoken. Time to listen up. #YesYourPresident,” Conway concluded.

Last month, Conway had a different perspective. 

“I just think Donald Trump is also putting people on notice that if there are irregularities, if there’s voter fraud, if there’s large-scale malfeasance that’s committed, that he’s not just going not to want to investigate that but we have to see what happens,” Conway said in October, defending her boss after Trump refused to state if he would accept the results of the election and got pummeled for stating, “I will tell you at the time.”

 

Image: Screenshot via Bloomberg Politics/YouTube