South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that President Donald Trump needed to be given his day in court the same way that failed Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore was given in 2000.
Noem made the remark after Stephanopoulos asked her if she was ready to work with “President-elect Biden” to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
After taking a shot at the widely criticized job that New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo has done in managing the pandemic in his state, Noem said, “I appreciated that President Trump gave us the flexibility to do the right thing in our state and [we’ll] continue to do that. He let me do my job.”
“But the other thing that I think is going on here, George, is that this is all premature. This is a premature conversation because we have not finished counting votes. There are states that have not been called, and back in 2000, Al Gore was given his day in court,” she continued. “We should give President Trump his day in court. Let the process unfold because, George, we live in a republic.”
“We are a government that gets its power from the consent of the governed. That is the people. They give their consent on Election Day,” she concluded. “Election Day needs to be fair, honest, and transparent, and we need to be sure that we had an honest election before we decide who gets to be in the White House the next four years.”
WATCH:
We the People choose our government by consent of the governed. We need to ensure that our elections are fair, honest, and transparent.
Al Gore got his day in court. President Trump and the 70 million Americans who voted for him should be afforded the same opportunity. pic.twitter.com/ww1KJHJQ2H
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) November 8, 2020
TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED VIA ABC NEWS:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS CHIEF ANCHOR: Let’s bring in Governor Kristi Noem right now. You just heard Governor Cuomo right there.
Governor Noem, thanks for joining us this morning. COVID is rising in your state as well. Cases are up, hospitalizations are up. Deaths are up.
Are you prepared to work with President-elect Biden to get it under control?
GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: Well, it is a regional increase that we’re seeing. We are testing more. And, frankly, George, I’m not going to take advice from Governor Cuomo. He has the second worst death rate per 100,000 people in this nation. He’s at 173 deaths per 100,000, per capita. South Dakota is at 54.
I appreciated that President Trump gave us the flexibility to do the right thing in our state and [we’ll] continue to do that. He let me do my job.
But the other thing that I think is going on here, George, is that this is all premature this. This is a premature conversation because we have not finished counting votes. There are states that have not been called, and back in 2000, Al Gore was given his day in court.
We should give President Trump his day in court. Let the process unfold because, George, we live in a republic.
We are a government that gets its power from the consent of the governed. That is the people. They give their consent on Election Day. Election Day needs to be fair, honest, and transparent, and we need to be sure that we had an honest election before we decide who gets to be in the White House the next four years.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Noem, do you have any evidence that it wasn’t an honest election? You had a tweet earlier this week saying it was rigged. Do you have any evidence at all of widespread fraud?
I’ve spoken with Republican secretaries of state in Georgia, in Arizona. I’ve spoken with Republican officials across the country. They have come up with zero evidence of widespread fraud.
NOEM: And that is not true. That is absolutely not true. People have signed legal documents, affidavits stating that they saw illegal activities. And that is why we need to have this conversation in court.
The New York Times itself said that there were clerical errors.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS CHIEF ANCHOR: No widespread fraud, Governor. That’s very different.
NOEM: If you look at what happened in Michigan, that we had computer glitches that changed Republican votes to Democrat votes. You look in Pennsylvania, dead people voted in Pennsylvania.
So, George, I don’t know how widespread it is. I don’t know if it’ll change the outcome of the election. But why is everybody so scared just to have a fair election and find out?
We gave Al Gore 37 days to run the process before we decided who was going to be president. Why would we not afford the 70.6 million Americans that voted for President Trump the same consideration?