Mitch McConnell Addresses Donald Trump’s False Claim That He Won the Election

As the election results continued to roll in, President Donald Trump issued a series of remarks from the White House on early Wednesday morning. In his speech, the president falsely claimed he had won the election, falsely asserted that there was election fraud, and said he wanted the voting to stop. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, responded to the president’s comments, saying he did not believe that it was “unusual” for someone to claim that they have won the election. Although, he did stress that the outcome of the election has not been decided yet.

“Well, it’s not unusual for people to claim they’ve won the election. I can think of that happening on numerous occasions,” McConnell told reporters on Wednesday. “But claiming you win the election is different from finishing the (vote) counting. And what we’re going to see here in the next few days, both in the Senate races and in the presidential race, is each state will ultimately get to a final outcome.” In his speech, Trump threatened that he will go to the Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent ballots that Americans legally cast from being counted, per the Kentucky Courier-Journal. He also claimed that there has been election fraud, despite there being no evidence to suggest this.

While speaking to reporters, McConnell did not criticize the president for his false claims. He shared that it is normal for contested elections to come before the judicial system and added that “the courts will decide the disputes.”

The senator added, “Having close, disputed elections is not unusual. It happens all the time, so I don’t think the president should be criticized for suggesting he may have some lawyers because the other guys are certainly already doing that and in a close election you can anticipate in some of these states you’re going to end up in court. It’s the American way.”

As previously mentioned, Trump made a series of false claims when he spoke at the White House on Wednesday morning. “Frankly, we did win this election,” he falsely claimed. “So our goal now is to ensure the integrity, for the good of this nation — this is a very big moment, this is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. It’s a very sad moment.” At the moment, the race between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is still ongoing as many state races are too close to call.