Barack Obama has voiced concern over the Republican leaders' attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and said that they are defending President Donald Trump's “bogus claims” of voter fraud because they are “intimidated” by it.
Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the November 3 presidential election, but President Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede defeat and has filed multiple lawsuits, challenging poll results in several states.
“I have been troubled, like I think every American, whether you're a Democrat, a Republican or an independent, should be troubled, when you start having attempts to block, negate, overturn the people's vote when there's no actual evidence that there was anything illegal or fraudulent taking place,” former president Obama told MSNBC.
He also criticised the conservative-leaning news outlets for giving a platform to Trump's unsubstantiated claims.
“And the degree to which you've seen some news outlets that cater to the right and the conservative viewpoint, somehow try to prop up these, you know, bogus claims,” Obama, the first Black American president said.
In the last phase of the campaign, Obama had campaigned for former vice president Biden and Kamala Harris Harris in some of the key battleground States of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Georgia.
The embattled Trump campaign has challenged vote count in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, among other states. A number of their lawsuits have been dismissed.
“They've been repeatedly rejected by the courts. I'm less surprised by Trump doing this; he has shown only a flimsy relationship to the truth. I'm more troubled that you're seeing a lot of Republican officials go along with it, not because they actually believe it but because they're intimidated by it,” Obama said.
Obama said that there is a difference between 2008 and now in 2020.