Former Secretary of State James Baker, who led the recount dispute in Florida’s 2000 presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore, says President Donald Trump’s campaign team should stop trying to end the vote count.
“There are huge differences,” Baker said of the Florida battle and the 2020 election, which hasn’t been called for either Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as six states are still too close to call, according to The New York Times.
“For one thing, our whole argument was that the votes have been counted and they’ve been counted and they’ve been counted and it’s time to end the process. That’s not exactly the message that I heard on election night. And so I think it’s pretty hard to be against counting the votes.”
“We never said don’t count the votes,” Baker told the Times. “That’s a very hard decision to defend in a democracy.”
Trump on Thursday claimed some legitimate tallying efforts should stop and tried to assert victory in the election.
"If you count the legal votes I easily win," Trump said, providing no evidence for his claim. "If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us."
His campaign has filed multiple lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada as the race remains increasingly tight.
Baker told the Times he didn’t approve of the Republican effort to toss out 127,000 votes in his hometown of Houston cast via drive-thru.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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