Trump Denies Plans to Declare Premature Victory in Election

By Dana Cruz First Posted: Nov 01, 2020 10:37 PM EST

President Donald Trump denied that he would declare premature victory in the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday night.

An Axios report said Trump was planning to declare a premature victory of the election if it looked like he was "ahead" of rival Democratic nominee Joe Biden. This is even if the Electoral College outcome still depends on large numbers from key election states like Pennsylvania.

The report also said that Trump's premature victory statement was only told to confidants as a private comment.

According to Axios, the president planned the scenario in the last few weeks: walk up to a podium and declare himself a winner.

But for him to do this, allies expect him to have commanding leads in states like Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona, and Georgia. Better yet, he'd win in those states.

He told reporters in North Carolina for his third rally of the day that it was a "false report," said Daily Mail.

Trump Readies for Legal Action

As Trump denied reports for declaring victory prematurely, he also signaled plans to mount legal challenges if ballots continue to get counted after Election Day, said The Hill.

"I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election," he said. "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."

He criticized the Supreme Court's decision to allow receiving ballots even after Election Day in some battleground states. The president said there was "great danger" to a few extra days of vote counting.

"I think a lot of fraud and misuse can take place," he said, without providing specific evidence for his claim. Mentioning Pennsylvania specifically, Trump said as soon as the election is over, "We're going to go in the night of... we're going in with our lawyers."

Trump and the GOP were reportedly planning to launch lawsuits in states that will extend the deadline to accept mail-in ballots.

The president said if people really wanted to get their ballots counted, "they should have gotten their ballots in long before that."

Trump has repeatedly called for a result to be declared on the night of Election Day. He launched attacks on the integrity of mail-in ballots throughout his campaign and has made it clear that he's against accepting ballots after Election Day.

But while news networks can at times call who is going to win the races on Election Day or the day after, those are only projections based on partial counts. States normally take more time in finishing counts and certifying their results.

This year, as mail-in ballots surged at an unprecedented rate, election officials encouraged people to send in ballots early so that polling place won't be crowded on Election Day.

In Pennsylvania, ballots that arrive three days after the election day but are postmark before it, will be accepted. The same goes for North Carolina that will receive ballots nine days after.