A leading law expert has said he is “horrified but not surprised” by Donald Trump’s reaction to the US Presidential Election results.

President Trump caused concern this morning by hitting out with baseless claims of voter fraud and claiming victory before ballots were counted.

President Trump has seen early leads in key states chipped away through the day as mail-in votes – believed to be favouring challenger Joe Biden – were counted.

Mr Biden is now firmly in the driving seat after taking the state of Wisconsin this evening; however, President Trump has already called for a recount – a process that can't begin for another ten days.

On The Hard Shoulder this evening, Kermit Roosevelt, great-great-grandson of the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, said there was nothing surprising in President Trump’s attitude.

“One of the things that Trump has done that I hope everyone can agree is a bad thing, is to really destroy people’s faith in Government,” he said.

“To corrode the norms of our political system so that, rather than reasoned disagreement and the idea of the loyal opposition, you have this view that the other side are traitors and fundamentally don’t deserve to hold power – and therefor whatever you do to stop them is justified.”

He said the Trump campaign has been laying the ground for a legal challenge to the outcome of the election for months – noting the President Trump had undermined the mail-in voting system and encouraged his own supporters to vote in person.

“He managed to segregate the votes so that the in-person votes skew Trump and then the mail-in ballots skew Biden,” he said.

“What that means is that, if he can disqualify mail-in ballots, then he can take the lead back and end up winning the election.”

Legal challenge

He said the basis for any legal challenge would be the decision by some sates to increase mail-in voting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Because so many more people wanted mail-in ballots, some states gave mail-in ballots to people who didn’t even ask for them,” he said. “They just sent out mail-in ballots.

“Some states extended the time during which mail-in ballots can be counted after election day. So even if they are not received by election day, if they are received within three days in Pennsylvania, they can be counted.

“There are legal grounds – not particularly strong ones I think – but there are arguments to be made that all of those changes are unconstitutional and therefor, those votes should be discounted and that is what I expect to see from the Trump administration.”

"Last cry of rage"

He said it seems pretty clear that the US is going to move towards the left in the coming years.

“You could say this election is the last cry of rage but people wanted to say that about the 2016 election,” he said. “It is not clear when this is going to happen but I think eventually it will.

“The prospect of becoming a majority minority nation definitely scares people. There is a lot of racial status anxiety and that certainly is one of the things that drives Trump voters.”

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