“This is an attempt to end the election illegitimately so that he can maintain power.”
US news outlets have slammed Donald Trump’s premature declaration that he has won the US election.
The results of the election are still too tight to call with Joe Biden looking set to win Arizona, according to AP, which would leave him in a very strong position to claim overall victory.
Biden urged voters to “keep the faith” and said “we’re going to win this.”
Trump declared on Wednesday morning (Irish time) that he had won the US election and described the election as a “fraud on the American public”.
However, Trump has no evidence whatsoever to back up his fraud claims and experts have said he is attempting to muddy the waters on election results.
“It’s undemocratic and false and premature,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said. “It is not accurate to say that he won.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta said: “Our founding fathers are probably rolling in their graves right now. They did not envision an American president delegitimising an election. That’s what Donald Trump did a few moments ago. It’s historic and it’s historically awful.”
Fox News’s Chris Wallace said: “This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match into it. He hasn’t won these states.”
Senior correspondent Terry Moran said on ABC: “This isn’t law. This isn’t politics. This is theatre.
“And let’s be blunt; it’s the theatre of authoritarianism.”
He added: “We should be blunt about this … this is an attempt to end the election illegitimately so that he can maintain power.”
Meanwhile on MSNBC, the channel said, “With millions of votes left to count, Trump falsely says he won.”
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