White House Weighs In On Florida Senate Recount
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/AP) - The recount for a Florida Senate seat has the White House weighing in.
On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp said Tuesday the president "obviously has his opinion" on the recount.
President Trump tweeted on Monday that the "ballots were massively infected" and an "honest vote count is no longer possible."
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018
On Tuesday, Trump called on Nelson to give up.
When will Bill Nelson concede in Florida? The characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to "find" enough votes, too much spotlight on them now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
Trump and Republican Governor Rick Scott, who holds a narrow lead over incumbent Democrat Nelson, have claimed election fraud, but there is no evidence to back up those claims.
State law requires a recount when candidates are within one-half point when all the votes are counted. If it reaches .5 percent, it automatically triggers a statewide machine recount. If it goes within .25, it triggers a manual recount.
RELATED STORY: HOW FLORIDA RECOUNTS WORK
"It's been incredibly frustrating to watch. You have a 12,000-vote gap and the other candidate refuses to concede," Schlapp said.
She added that the president is confident Scott will win.
Nelson wants Scott to recuse himself from the recount process.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement released a joint statement saying they were monitoring the recount "processes for potential criminal activity. There are procedures in place to address fraud or other criminal misconduct associated with any election in Florida."
Both the state elections department and the FDLE, which are run by Republican appointees, have said they have seen no evidence of voter fraud anywhere in the state and a Broward judge challenged anyone who has evidence of fraud to file a report.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
