‘Just Pathetic’: Trump Widely Condemned For Wannabe Dictator White House Statement

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on November 5, 2020. - Democrat Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump in the race for the 270 electoral votes tha... US President Donald Trump speaks in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on November 5, 2020. - Democrat Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump in the race for the 270 electoral votes that will put one of them over the top, with the Democrat's campaign asserting they believe he has enough votes to win in key battleground states that remain undecided, like Pennsylvania. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Within seconds of President Donald Trump wrapping up a rambling statement in which he baselessly claimed that counting votes was actually election theft, he faced a barrage of condemnation from, well, just about everyone. 

John Roberts, Fox News’ White House correspondent, pointed out that the President had simply not presented any evidence for his claims of widespread fraud.

“Perhaps I just haven’t heard about it,” Roberts allowed. 

“We have not seen it, we have not seen the evidence yet” anchor Brett Baier agreed. 

After Trump concluded the strongman spectacle without taking questions from reporters, CNN anchor Jake Tapper took aim at the President for continuing his efforts to delegitimize the election process. He called Trump’s presser “a sad night” for the country.

“What a sad night for the United States of America, to hear their president say that, to falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election, to try to attack democracy that way, with his feast of falsehoods,” Tapper said. “Lie after lie.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper echoed that sentiment, agreeing that Trump’s remarks were “sad and truly pathetic.” Cooper concluded with a reptilian retort to Trump.

“That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over. But he just hasn’t accepted it, and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.”

MSNBC cut away from Trump’s statement in less than a minute, with anchor Brian Williams noting, “there are no illegal votes that we know of. There has been no Trump victory that we know of.”

The New York Post, part of the broader Rupert Murdoch media empire that is generally sympathetic to Trump, referred to Trump as “downcast” in a headline on his statement and pointed out that the votes Trump was so upset about were actually perfectly legal. 

“The President railed against what he called ‘illegal votes,’ not acknowledging that the US election is still in progress as legal mail-in votes are being counted and that the 2020 presidential race was simply not able to be declared on Election Night due to the coronavirus,” the Post’s Ebony Bowden wrote. 

On Twitter, Democrats were up in arms. Some cheered what they predicted to be Trump’s last episode, some gave grave warnings about the future the speech portended. 

But in perhaps the clearest mark of how dire Trump’s prospects for reelection are, there was a small but resounding denunciation from conservatives. 

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said there was “no defense” for Trump’s comments:

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) acknowledged the President may be frustrated but pushed back on Trump without directly naming him:

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a sometimes Trump critic, called the President’s antics “insane.” 

Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) called on his reticent peers to denounce the speech.

Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and now a CNN analyst, said the President hadn’t presented any evidence for his claims of election fraud, then pointed out the obvious truth: His lead was diminishing as elections officials counted ballots cast by-mail. 

“Democrats voted by mail, that’s why your lead went away,” Santorum said. 

And a new Republican to the flock said he was “ashamed” of the President’s behavior.

But perhaps the clearest indication of how this speech, in some ways so like the hundreds Trump has given over the last four years, was still a level above, came from the fact-checker who has been tracking Trump throughout his whole presidency.

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