Bernie Sanders Sounds the Alarm: Trump Could Declare Victory Too Early and ‘Attempt to Suppress Enough Votes to Win’

US Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, speaks at George Washington University
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is sounding the alarm over the prospect of a Trump victory on Tuesday, warning that Trump could declare himself the winner before enough votes are counted and ultimately “attempt to suppress enough votes to win.”

“This comes as no surprise. It has been Trump’s strategy for months, and nobody should fall for it. It’s why he is demonizing mail-in ballots and sabotaging the postal service,” Sanders said in response to an Axios report alleging that the president will declare victory Tuesday night if it appears he is “ahead.”

“As I have warned many times, Trump is very likely to declare himself the winner at a moment when a large portion Republican-leaning, in-person votes have been counted, but before a vast number of Democratic mail-in ballots are counted,” Sanders continued, painting a dark scenario where Trump “will continue his lies about voter fraud in an attempt to suppress enough votes to win.”

“We will not allow that to happen. Every vote must and will be counted,” he added:

Sanders’ warning comes as polls show the race dramatically tightening in the final days of the presidential race. Democrats have shown signs of panic over their prospects in certain states, including Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Trump has denied the “false report” he would declare victory too early, but added that “it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election.”

“I think it’s a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over,” he emphasized.

“We don’t want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. … We don’t want to be in a position where he’s allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots,” he said, also referencing Nevada:

“I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait a long period of time after the election. If people wanted to get their ballots in, they should’ve got their ballots in long before that,” he added.

Over 95 million people have already cast their ballots, according to a Monday morning update from the U.S. Elections Project. That reflects 69.2 percent of the total votes counted in the 2016 election.

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