President Donald Trump is expressing doubts about the accuracy of the Los Angeles mayoral election results.
“Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had,” Trump, 79, wrote via Truth Social on Monday, June 8. “3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections! Now they’ll be working on great guy Steve Hilton. Won’t have results for, possibly, TWO WEEKS, according to officials. President DJT.”
Thousands of Los Angeles registered voters headed to the polls on Tuesday, June 2, to cast their vote for mayor and other races.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has received the votes necessary to move forward to the general election for California governor. Hilton, 56, a Republican, remains in second place to reach the November race, but Democrat Tom Steyer is currently in third place.
As for Los Angeles Mayor, Pratt, 42, was initially in second place behind current mayor Karen Bass. NBC News confirmed on Sunday, June 7, however, that Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman had taken a narrow lead for second place. (The top two candidates will face off in a runoff election this November.)
“Me trying to figure out how votes get counted in LA,” Pratt wrote via Instagram on Sunday.
Although NBC News and other outlets have projected Bass, 72, advancing to the runoff, it’s unclear who will join her as votes continue to be counted.
In a statement to NBC News, Raman, 44, said she is “encouraged by the latest vote count and remains grateful to the thousands of Angelenos who have powered this campaign.”
Bass’ campaign also reacted to the results by attacking Raman in a new statement.
“We look forward to winning a contest against an opponent who allows encampments near schools and fights against hiring more cops, yet is MIA on saving Hollywood jobs and fighting back when ICE invades LA,” Bass campaign spokesperson, Alex Stack, said.
Los Angeles’ election results have grabbed the attention of many political observers across the country. During the Monday, June 8, episode of The View, the cohosts addressed the pace at which Los Angeles is delivering results.
“I will say, people tend not to trust elections when it takes a really long time to count votes,” Alyssa Farah Griffin shared during the “Hot Topics” segment. “L.A. and California in general need to figure out how to do it quicker. Change the laws so you can do it in one day. Florida has a lot of mail-in and they get results the same night. It makes people think, ‘Oh something’s off.’ But there’s not. That’s how their rules are.”
Sunny Hostin, however, disagreed and applauded the county for “taking their time to count the votes.”
“It does take a long time to be right,” she added.
