2020 race: Donald Trump attacks ‘third world' US over elections

Donald Trump has attacked the US voting system as judges in Georgia and Michigan dismissed his latest legal challenges.

Donald Trump has slammed America as a third world nation when it comes to elections as he predicted “big things” were still to come in his bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

The president’s comments came as judges in Georgia and Michigan dismissed the latest legal challenges to the election result. At the same time, Georgia recertified its election victory for Mr Biden after its third recount.

With just over a week left until the Electoral College formally votes for Mr Biden on 14 December, Mr Trump is running out of time to uncover what he alleges to be massive fraud in the November 3 poll.

At a White House ceremony, a clearly frustrated president lashed out at his country’s democratic voting system.

“The election was totally rigged, it’s a disgrace to our country. It’s like a third-world country – these ballots pouring in from everywhere, using machinery that nobody knows ownership, nobody knows anything about,” he said.

“They have ‘glitches,’ as they call them. Glitches. The glitches weren’t glitches. They got caught sending out thousands of votes, all against me by the way.

“No, this was from like a third-world nation and I think the case has been made. And now we find out what we can do about it – you’ll be seeing a lot of big things happening over the next couple of days”.

But the legal campaign to overturn the election continues to fail dismally, with judges in Michigan and Georgia dismissing and ridiculing lawsuits brought by former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.

Georgia US District Court Judge Timothy Batten, a Republican appointee, dismissed the attempt to decertify a Biden victory in that state, describing it as “perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election.”

“They want this court to substitute its judgment for that of 2.5 million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden, and this I am unwilling to do.”

In Michigan a federal judge, Linda Parker, a Democrat appointee, also dismissed a lawsuit to decertify Biden’s win in that state.

“Plaintiffs ask this Court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters. This, the Court cannot, and will not, do,” Judge Parker wrote.

In Georgia, the Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger on Tuesday (AEDT) recertified the state’s election results, confirming a Biden victory by around 12,000 votes after three recounts.

The move follows a tense few days in which the Georgia Governor Brian Kemp rebuffed pressure from Mr Trump to persuade Republican state representatives to interfere in the election process.

“Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country,” said Raffensperger, who has accused the president of hurting his state with his debunked election claims.

“Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly and reliably,” he said.

After his comments the president repeated his call for the governor, Mr Kemp, to demand an audit of signatures on mail ballots.

The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2020

”The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?,” Mr Trump tweeted.

Mr Trump’s ongoing legal fight over the election outcome comes as the coronavirus crisis in the US continues to worsen with daily infections now averaging more than 200,000. The country’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, warned that the upcoming Christmas period could see the most dangerous phase of the crisis yet.

“The middle of January can be a really dark time for us,’ he said. Daily deaths from COVID-19 are rising fast and are now averaging more than 2,250 per day with experts warning they may soon exceed 3,000 per day on a regular basis.

In California Governor Gavin Newsom has introduced the toughest lock-down rules in the country in a bid to slow the soaring rate of infections across the state, especially in Los Angeles.

Mr Newson said the number of patients hospitalised in the state had soared by 72 per cent in just two weeks while the number in intensive care had jumped by 69 per cent.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo, said rising hospitalisation rates would be used as a sign to progressively close down the state if necessary. “If you’re going to overwhelm the hospital system, then we have no choice but to go to close down,” Mr Cuomo said.

He said indoor dining could be banned in the state in the coming week amid growing fears of a second major outbreak in New York City which was hit so hard by the virus in the early days of the pandemic in April.

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)