Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that President Trump should accept the election results “like a man” instead of attempting to sow doubt about election results if all ballots aren’t counted on election night.
MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin asked the speaker what Democrats can do if Trump prematurely declares victory on Election Night.
Pelosi responded, accusing the president of trying to “stir the pot” with his questioning the need to take extra time to count ballots cast by mail, and predicted that former Vice President Joe Biden would win the election.
“On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden will be inaugurated president of the United States. The states will count the votes that they have in a timely fashion,” Pelosi said.
“The easiest thing for [Trump] to do is to stand up like a man and accept the results of an election of the American people,” Pelosi continued. “For him to make these kinds of statements shows his lack of patriotism, his undermining of our elections while he allows foreign countries like his friend [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to undermine the integrity of our election, he himself is doing it as well.”
It’s possible that a winner in the presidential election won’t be declared Tuesday night due to the volume of ballots cast by mail. Election officials have already seen a large influx of mail-in ballots over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and have warned that it may take additional days or weeks to tally them.
“It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on Nov. 3, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate and I don’t believe that that’s by our laws,” Trump said on Tuesday. “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump has repeatedly and without substantial evidence suggested that voting by mail will lead to widespread voter fraud, despite voting absentee himself in Florida primaries earlier this year.
Trump also declined to say on multiple occasions if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election to Biden. During an NBC News town hall earlier this month, Trump said that he would accept a peaceful transfer of power but said that he wanted an “honest election.”
“Peaceful transfer? I absolutely want that. But ideally, I don’t want to transfer, because I want to win,” Trump said during the town hall.
“And then they talk about, ‘Will you accept a peaceful transfer?’ ” Trump continued. “The answer is yes, I will. But I want it to be an honest election. And so does everybody else.”
Both the House and Senate passed symbolic resolutions in September to affirm commitment to the peaceful transfer of power after Trump declined to do so at the time. While the Senate passed its version by unanimous consent, five Republicans voted against the House counterpart.