Scarborough: GOP trying to stop vote count in Florida is ‘third-world country stuff’

MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough called GOP efforts in Florida to stop counting incoming votes “third-world country stuff.”

Scarborough made the remarks on his show Friday, the morning after Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) sued Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes.

“Rick Scott is freaking out. He doesn’t want ballots to be counted,” Scarborough, a former GOP congressman who dropped out of the Republican Party after President Trump’s election, said on his show Friday. “This is third-world country stuff coming from the Republican Party.”

Scott has a slim 15,000 vote lead in Florida over incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D).

In his lawsuit, he claims that Broward County, where votes are still being counted, has lacked transparency in its vote-counting methods. He also accuses the county of withholding information on how many people voted, how many ballots have been counted and how many more votes remain untallied in the county.

“I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election,” Scott said Thursday in a press conference. “Every day since the election, the left wing activists in Broward County have been coming up with more and more ballots out of nowhere.”

The margin between Scott and Nelson is just 0.18 percentage points, enough to trigger an automatic recount under the state’s law.

Other Republicans have joined Scott in criticizing Broward County, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) accusing Democrats of wanting to change the election’s results.

Now democrat lawyers are descending on #Florida. They have been very clear they aren’t here to make sure every vote is counted.

– They are here to change the results of election; &
– #Broward is where they plan to do it.#Sayfie

4/6

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 8, 2018

Scarborough criticized Rubio for the remarks. 

“Marco Rubio actually wants to make sure that Florida citizens’ votes aren’t counted,” he said. 

Scarborough said sometimes close races can take a few extra days to tally up, but that Republicans are angry because the remaining uncounted votes come from Democratic-leaning counties.

“They got nothing,” Scarborough said. “They are trying to stop the votes from being counted.”

President Trump blasted what he called “another big corruption scandal having to do with election fraud” in a late Thursday night tweet.

Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018

He reiterated his criticism Friday morning to reporters on the White House lawn.