Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers laugh down Trump and Rick Scott's Florida recount conspiracy theories


Florida is recounting the votes in three statewide races, including Senate and governor, after Republicans Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis saw their Election Night leads shrink to under half a percentage point. "Right now we don't know who won," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "Of course, this is Florida, so once they factor in the write-in votes, we might be looking at Sen. Gator Wearing Sunglasses."
"Republicans have been skeptical of this recount from the beginning," Colbert said, and President Trump has tweeted out baseless and bizarre theories about voter fraud, including a suggestion about when to stop the vote count. "Go with Election Night?" Colbert asked. "You can't just pick the time that was best for you." He imagined trying that with a baseball game where your losing team was ahead in the 7th inning. Trump also "freaked out" about Arizona's now-resolved Senate race and asked if we should call a new election, Colbert noted. He was game: "Sure, how about 2016?"
In Florida, "election officials were still counting mail ballots and provisional ballots, which is totally normal and happens in every election, but Trump and Scott have been lying and spreading baseless conspiracy theories about nonexistent voter fraud," Seth Meyers said on Late Night, after bringing up various fraud schemes tied to Trump, Scott, and Trump's acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker. He was also unimpressed with Trump's suggestion about stopping the vote on election night: "Hey man, you don't get to just stop counting the votes because you're ahead. Trump's like a guy who starts a game of H-O-R-S-E, scores one basket, and says, 'Actually, we were playing H, so I win.'"
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"The guys lying about nonresistant voter fraud are the ones who committed actual fraud," Meyers concluded. "A grifter president put a grifter in charge of the Justice Department and is trying to get another grifter elected to the Senate." Watch below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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