Donald Trump is continuing his anti-democracy tactics, this time calling on the candidate he endorsed for a Pennsylvania seat in the U.S. Senate to simply “declare victory” despite the race being exceptionally close and all the ballots not being counted.
“Dr. Oz should declare victory,” Trump wrote on his own social media platform, Truth Social, as Politico’s Meridith McGraw reports. “It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots they ‘just happened to find.'”
“Celebrity doctor” Mehmet Oz, the far-right candidate Trump endorsed, is in a close battle with hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick.
The race cannot be called because Pennsylvania lawmakers passed legislation requiring mail-in ballots to be counted after all other ballots.
The Philadelphia Inquirer late Wednesday morning reports “thousands or even tens of thousands of votes” are “still yet to be counted (including both some in-person votes and mail-ballots),” and added: “it was unclear who would have the edge once all the initial counting was done.”
“It’s impossible to know exactly how many votes are left to be counted, in part because some votes, such as overseas and military ballots, are still coming in.”
“Either way, it appeared very likely the race would trigger an automatic recount, which happens if the winning margin is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast. The winner would have to end up with a margin of around 6,000 to 6,800 votes to avoid that eventuality.”
Politico’s Zach Montellaro accused Trump of “undermining democracy.”