‘No defence’ for President’s actions

Speaking from the White House for the first time since election night, the President falsely declared that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are trying “to steal the election from us”.

“We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away, in secrecy,” he said, adding there’ll be “a lot of litigation”.

“We will see. But we think there will be a lot of litigation because we cannot have an election stolen like this and I tell you, I have been talking about this for many months with all of you. I have said very strongly that mail-in ballots are going to be a disaster. We are hearing absolute horror stories and we cannot let that happen to the United States of America.”

The speech has been denounced as “unacceptable” by both current and former members of the Republican party, including former senator Jeff Flake.

“No Republican should be okay with the President’s statements just now,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Unacceptable. Period.”

RELATED: Follow our live coverage of the US election

“There is no defense for the President’s comments tonight undermining our Democratic process,” Governor of Maryland and Republican party member Larry Hogan tweeted.

“America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before. No election or person is more important than our Democracy.”

Speaking to CNN after Mr Trump’s speech, former Republican senator Rick Santorum said that “no Republican elected official is going to stand behind that statement”.

“None of them are. Much of that statement was not factual and was at times incendiary, and not something the President of the United States should say, or any elected official should say,” he told the network.

“How can you say we have to wait and count the votes in Arizona, but if you count the votes in Philadelphia, you’re stealing them?

“The reality is, in Pennsylvania, Democrats voted by mail and Republicans voted in person. Because you asked them to.

“For the President to go out and claim (fraud) without any evidence of that is dangerous.

“To suggest that counting votes, by clerks all over 67 counties, was somehow rigged, no! Democrats voted by mail, that’s why your lead went away! If they had voted in person, you’d be in the same position right now.

“I’m hopeful that Republicans will stand up at this moment and say what needs to be said about the integrity of our election.”

RELATED: ‘Go to total war’: Donald Trump Jr explodes

Members of Mr Trump’s team – and family – meanwhile are, unsurprisingly, standing by his inaccurate claims.

“I Stand With President @realDonaldTrump,” Vice President Mike Pence wrote on Twitter.

“We must count every LEGAL vote.”

In Georgia, another key battleground state where Mr Trump’s lead is shrinking, CEO of DeKalb County, Vernon Jones, told the crowd: “We are not going to stand for it, we are not going to back down. We are going to fight. This is a battle cry.”

“I just want to say to the press, we ain’t bullsh*tting,” he said.