As Trump Cries Election Fraud, Pompeo Celebrates ‘Counting of Valid Absentee Ballots’ In Pennsylvania

Alex GriffingMay 19th, 2022, 5:56 pm
 
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a news conference at the State Department

Chip Somodevilla, Getty

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his former boss Donald Trump put out two very different messages on Thursday regarding the integrity of the vote in Tuesday’s GOP primary in Pennsylvania. 

The race between Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick remained too close to call as absentee ballots continued to be counted Thursday. But, that didn’t stop Trump, who is backing Oz in the race, from tweeting Wednesday that Oz should just “declare victory.”

On Thursday, Trump doubled down and wrote on social media, “The Pennsylvania Oz race is ridiculous. How long does it take to count votes. France, same day all paper, had VERIFIED numbers in evening. U.S. is a laughing stock on Elections. Stop FINDING VOTES in PENNSYLVANIA! RIGGED?”

Pompeo, who is supporting McCormick in the race, tweeted a very different takeaway from the slow counting of votes:

Facts show that the counting of valid absentee ballots is very likely to put @DaveMcCormickPA on top in the PA Senate race. This is great news for Pennsylvania and for America.

According to Pennsylvania law, a candidate must win with at least a 0.5 percent margin or there will be an automatic recount. Many analysts predicted that McCormick would outperform Oz in absentee voting given demographic trends and Oz favoring Trump’s allegations of voter fraud vis-a-vis absentee voting. 

Pompeo, a potential 2024 Republican candidate, has put a significant amount of distance between himself and Trump during the Pennsylvania senate primary – offering a potential preview of the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

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Alex Griffing - Senior Editor

Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing