He was known as the “architect” of the George Bush presidency, and to this day some still call him a “kingmaker.” And while Democrats have good reason to oppose his practices and political policies, Karl Rove is still a voice of reason among Republicans.

So when the former Bush Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff talks on Fox News or writes in The Wall Street Journal, he’s often listened to.

And it’s time for the right wing extremists to listen to Rove now.

There is no election fraud, and no vote “stealing,” he warns them.

“There are suspicious partisans across the spectrum who believe widespread election fraud is possible,” Rove writes at The Wall Street Journal and on his site.

“Some hanky-panky always goes on, and there are already reports of poll watchers in Philadelphia not being allowed to do their jobs. But stealing hundreds of thousands of votes would require a conspiracy on the scale of a James Bond movie. That isn’t going to happen.”

Let’s repeat that: ” That isn’t going to happen.”

Image by George W. Bush Presidential Center via Flickr and a CC license

President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning declared victory in the 2020 presidential race despite the fact that votes are still being counted and elections analysts say the vote is still too close to call.

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale shredded Trump’s premature “victory” speech by documenting the many “egregiously false” claims the president made early in the morning.

First, Dale takes apart Trump’s claim that Democrats are trying to “disenfranchise” his voters by continuing to count votes in swing states.

“Elections officials were not trying to ‘disenfranchise’ — deprive of the right to vote — the Trump supporters who voted for him,” he writes. “Democratic leaders were simply calling for all of the votes to be counted.”

He also rips Trump’s claim that he had been improperly deprived of a victory celebration.

“While Trump may well prove victorious once the votes are counted, neither he nor opponent Joe Biden had yet reached the 270 electoral votes necessary for a victory; prominent media outlets had not projected a winner in key states including Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan,” he writes, before going on to knock the president for saying that he had already won Michigan when the reality looks like Biden seems on track to carry the state.

Read the whole analysis here.

Fox News is declaring former Vice President Joe Biden the projected winner of Arizona. It is the first state flip over the results from 2016.

Here’s Fox News congressional reporter Chad Pergram:

"The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former Vice President Joe Biden will win the state of Arizona, dramatically narrowing the president’s pathway to reelection. It is the first state of the night where Trump loses a state he won in 2016." 11 electoral votes for Biden

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) November 4, 2020

Fox News producer:

The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former Vice President Joe Biden will win the state of Arizona

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) November 4, 2020

MSNBC has Arizona too early to call, but with Biden leading.