Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) said Monday that President Trump ought to stay out of the arguments over the vote recount taking place in Florida.
“In 2000 there was a lot of screaming by politicians in both parties…but not from President Clinton to his great credit, even though he deeply wanted Al Gore and me to get elected,” Lieberman said on CNN, recalling disputes over the presidential recount in Florida. Lieberman ran as vice president on Gore’s ticket in 2000.
“I think that was the right way [to handle it],” Lieberman said. “And I think that President Trump would be best to stand back.”
{mosads}”It’s hard for him to do,” he admitted. “It’s not his nature.”
“But there’s enough other people in Florida and elsewhere to be screaming at each other about this vote recount that the president of the united states ought to stay above.”
Trump has spoken out about the recounts taking place across Florida and Arizona.
He suggested last week that “election fraud” had taken place in Florida and urged officials on Monday to go with the initial results from the midterm elections, where Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott won their races.
Trump argued that “an honest vote count is no longer possible.”
DeSantis, a former congressman, is facing down Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) in the state’s gubernatorial race, while Scott, the current governor, has battled Sen. Bill Nelson (D) for Nelson’s Senate seat.
The two counties still tallying votes, Broward and Palm Beach, have come under scrutiny and a judge ruled that both had been insufficiently transparent about their polling process.
However, the court did not bring forth any evidence of voter fraud.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also declined to investigate Broward, as Scott requested, saying that they had not received credible allegations of voter fraud.
A Broward Circuit Judge also denied Scott’s request that the FDLE impound ballots and voting machines in the county when not in use on Monday.
Meanwhile, Nelson has called for Scott to recuse himself from “any role” in the recount process.