Former national security adviser Susan Rice is declaring that President Donald Trump will not “decide the election” following a report suggesting he will proclaim victory prematurely.
“The American people are gonna decide this election, not Donald Trump and his lies and his rhetoric and his efforts to sow confusion and chaos,” Rice said during Monday’s MSNBC interview. “It’s gonna be the American people.”
She added, “If we all get out and vote, I am confident that we will have an outcome that reflects the will of the American people. I believe that means Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be going to the White House.”
“But, whatever the outcome, it needs to be that which is decided by the people not Donald Trump on a whim in his effort to just perpetuate himself in power at whatever cost. That will not fly.”
See Rice’s comments below:
Fmr. National Security Adviser Susan Rice: "The American people are gonna decide this election, not Donald Trump and his lies and his rhetoric and his efforts to sow confusion and chaos. It's gonna be the American people." https://t.co/YJniw0JwPT pic.twitter.com/jIuwobDLlJ
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 2, 2020
Election Day is on Tuesday. Just days ahead, Axios reported that Trump will declare himself the winner if it seems he is ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden Tuesday, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the president’s alleged comments.
Trump, however, called that a “false report” when speaking to reporters Sunday in Charlotte, N.C., as IJR reported.
“I think it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it’s a terrible thing when people or states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over because it can only lead to one thing,” Trump said.
The president continued, “I think it’s terrible when we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election…We’re going to go in the night of, as soon as that election’s over, we’re going in with our lawyers.”
Over 95 million Americans have cast their ballots so far, totaling 68.9% of the total votes cast in the 2016 presidential election, as of Monday morning, according to U.S. Elections Project. There have been more than 91 million mail-in ballots requested in the reporting states, with over 35 million ballots returned so far.