A bipartisan group of former elected officials, cabinet officials, retired military officials and civic leaders, known as the National Council on Election Integrity, also derided Trump’s calls to stop legal vote-counting. The campaign filed lawsuits to cease vote tallies in Michigan and Pennsylvania, but the suit in Michigan was tossed by a judge.
The group includes the likes of former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (Trump), former Homeland Security Secretaries Michael Chertoff (Bush) and Tom Ridge (Bush), former Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta (Obama) and Chuck Hagel (Obama), and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (Clinton).
“The president spent 15 minutes using the podium of the White House to make false claims that undermine the integrity of our elections and do a disservice to the hard-working election officials around the nation who have performed their duties admirably,” they said in a joint statement. “There is absolutely no basis for these irresponsible claims.”
