Ocasio-Cortez slams Trump’s ‘authoritarian’ declaration of victory

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) condemned President Trump early Wednesday for prematurely declaring himself the winner of the presidential election even though millions of ballots are still being counted across the country, calling his announcement “authoritarian.” 

“Donald Trump’s premature claims of victory are illegitimate, dangerous, and authoritarian,” Ocasio-Cortez, a vocal critic of the president, wrote on Twitter. 

“Count the votes. Respect the results,” she added. 

Donald Trump’s premature claims of victory are illegitimate, dangerous, and authoritarian.

Count the votes. Respect the results.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 4, 2020

In an address from the East Room of the White House early Wednesday, Trump asserted that he had won states like Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan, despite tens of thousands of outstanding ballots in those states.

“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said, adding that he would go to the Supreme Court in an effort to stop ballot counting. 

No media outlet has called a winner in those states, and no election officials have declared a winner in the race for the White House. 

As of Wednesday morning, Trump leads Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Michigan by only 0.3 percentage points with 90 percent of the vote reporting. 

Mail ballots are still being counted in Michigan and Wisconsin, where Biden now leads by 1 percentage point with 95 percent of the votes in.

Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillion, slammed Trump for his remarks, calling them “outrageous.” 

“The counting will not stop. It will continue until every duly cast vote is counted. Because that is what our laws — the laws that protect every Americans’ constitutional right to vote — require,” O’Malley Dillon said in a statement early Wednesday, adding that Trump’s comments are “a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

Trump also received bipartisan criticism from lawmakers after his remarks, with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a top Trump ally, telling ABC News anchors that Trump’s decision to prematurely declare himself the winner was “bad.”

“I talk tonight not as a former governor, but as a former U.S. attorney. There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn’t,” said Christie, who previously served as U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

Ocasio-Cortez easily won reelection Tuesday night against Republican challenger John Cummings after surviving several Democratic primary challengers, winning just under 75 percent of the vote.