Iran’s Supreme Leader Mocks ‘U.S. Democracy’ as a ‘Spectacle’

Iran’s supreme leader mocked the ongoing U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, claiming the vote has exposed the true nature of “U.S. democracy.”

The U.S. held its presidential election on November 3. Initial results showed U.S. President Donald Trump held a lead over challenger Joe Biden. As polls closed on election night, Trump was poised to lead in key states. By the next morning on November 4, Trump’s lead had diminished, the result of mounting mail-in ballots that favored Biden, observers said. Multiple states expanded mail-in voting this year in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans have since protested that legally authorized poll watchers have allegedly been prevented from observing the ballot counting process at designated centers and the Trump administration has said it has received reports of voter fraud across multiple states.

The president’s lawyers have filed lawsuits in some states to halt the ballot counting process after Election Day and to demand a recount. They are currently organizing an official legal challenge to the alleged voter fraud. Trump vowed on November 5 in a speech at the White House that his legal team would take the challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

“This election is not over,” Trump 2020 Campaign General Counsel Matt Morgan said in a statement on Friday.

Reacting to the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the ongoing U.S. presidential election on November 4, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called U.S. democracy a “spectacle” in a statement on Twitter.

What a spectacle! One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office. His rival says Trump intends to rig the election! This is how #USElections & US democracy are.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 4, 2020

U.S. national security officials on October 21 said that Iran was attempting to interfere in the November 3 presidential election by sending threatening emails to Democrat voters with the aim of damaging efforts to reelect Trump.

“We have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran, and separately by Russia,” U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said at a press conference. He was joined by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray.

“This data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to convey misinformation,” Ratcliffe said.

“We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump,” he explained.

The Trump administration has led a campaign of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic Republic, pulling the U.S. out of a 2015 multilateral deal that offered Tehran billions in sanctions relief if it agreed to curb its nuclear program. On September 21, the Trump administration reimposed U.N. sanctions on Iran meant to deter its nuclear proliferation. In addition, the administration imposed “new sanctions and export controls on more than two dozen entities and individuals that support Iran’s nuclear, missile, and conventional arms-related activities.”

Biden has stated that should he become the next U.S president, his administration would rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was solidified while he was vice president under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.