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Trump mum on reports that he'll declare victory even if outcome of some swing states is in doubt

Says he 'won't play games'
Trump mum on reports that he'll declare victory even if outcome of some swing states is in doubt
Posted at 7:02 AM, Nov 03, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-03 09:03:57-05

During an Election Day appearance on Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump remained tight-lipped on reports that he would declare victory in the 2020 presidential race even if a significant portion of votes remained uncounted in key swing states.

When asked when he would deliver a victory speech, Trump said simply, "when there's victory."

"We won't play games," Trump said.

The comments come days after Axios reported that three of Trump's confidants believe the President will deliver a victory speech "if it looks like he's 'ahead.'" Trump has also hinted at rallies that Republican lawyers will flood several key swing states with lawsuits in order to prevent some votes from being counted after Election Day.

During his interview Tuesday, Trump decried a recent Supreme Court decision that upheld some state-imposed rules that allowed some state election boards to continue counting votes following Election Day.

He also said it would be "bad for our country" if Americans don't know the outcome of the presidential election by Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

While analysts can often make a projection about the outcome of the race on Election Night, that doesn't mean election boards stop counting ballots. It typically takes several days for ballots to be counted and a week or two for the results of an election to be verified.

This year, it will likely be much harder for analysts to make a projection about the presidential race due to a high number of mail-in ballots. In some states, like the key swing state of Pennsylvania, poll workers cannot begin processing mail-in votes until the morning of election day. It's likely that results from Pennsylvania won't be clear until later in the week.

According to Vox, about 100 million Americans voted early in the 2020 election.