President Donald Trump ended an interview with NBC News on Sunday after a tense exchange over California’s vote-counting process and his claims about the 2020 election.
The back-and-forth unfolded during an interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, who pressed Trump on his argument that California’s elections were being manipulated because some races had not yet been called several days after Election Day.
“It’s happening again right now in California,” Trump said, pointing to the state’s ongoing ballot count. “This is happening right now in California, right now. It’s four days.”
Welker pushed back, noting that delayed results are common in California because of the way the state handles mail-in ballots, provisional ballots and post-election verification rules.
“That’s how they vote in California,” Welker told him.
Trump argued that the late-counted ballots were benefiting Democrats and said the process raised concerns about election integrity. Welker repeatedly challenged that claim, saying there was no evidence that the state’s elections had been rigged.
The president pointed to several California races that remained too close to call as ballots continued to be processed. Among them was the race to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, where Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra held a narrow lead after about 6.7 million ballots had been counted, representing roughly 71% of the expected statewide vote.
Becerra had 27.0% of the vote, followed by Republican Steve Hilton with 26.1%. Democrat Tom Steyer was in third place with 21.3%.
The Los Angeles mayoral race was also still tight. Former reality television star Spencer Pratt had 27.3% of the vote, while Democratic rival Nithya Raman had climbed to 26.2%, leaving the two candidates separated by 7,494 votes, according to the Associated Press.
Welker noted that Republicans, including Hilton and Pratt, appeared to perform well on election night. Trump responded that as more ballots were counted, the races tightened, which he said was suspicious.
Election officials and voting experts have long noted that California typically takes longer than many other states to report final results. State law allows voters to cast ballots by mail, at vote centers, through secure drop boxes or provisionally. Election officials may begin verifying signatures and preparing mail ballots before Election Day, but they cannot tabulate votes until after polls close.
California also counts ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on time. Voters are also given up to 14 days to fix certain signature or identification problems, which can extend the counting process.
That system differs from states such as Florida and Texas, where officials often report near-complete unofficial results on election night because of stricter ballot receipt deadlines and earlier processing of mail ballots.
As Welker continued to press Trump on whether he had evidence of fraud, the president accused NBC of bias and said he had “had enough” before ending the interview early.
