Local political scientists say President Trump's call to stop ballot counting undermines American de

Local political scientists say President Trump's call to stop ballot counting undermines American democracy

As we heard from abc -- the president has asked for the counting of ballots to stop.

He says he's the winner and that any result showing joe biden has won is because of fraud.

It's a political tactic political analysts say is a threat to american democracy.

Kq2's kilee thomas has the story.

<<kq2's kilee thomas reports: in the predawn hours of wednesday president trump taking the country by surprise "we were getting ready to win the election.

Frankly, we did win this election.""we'll be going to the u.s. supreme court.

We want all voting to stop.

We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning and add them to the list."

Hours after these statements, prominent republicans waying in "some of the most irresponsible comments that a president of the united states has ever made."

"it's a bad strategic decision, it's a bad political decision and it's not a decision you expect someone to make tonight who holds the position he holds."

Missouri western political science professors siding with those analysts"the president is completely wrong."

"if not all ballots are counted, then the legitimacy of the outcome will be very much damaged and hurt."

"candidates don't get to declare themselves victors, especially in a presidential election right?

Voters declare victors when votes are actually counted."

Political scientists say president trump's tactic to counting legitimate ballots in states where he is trailing undermines american democracy "that is not the way that american democracy works and that is not what citizens stand for."

"absolutely hurts democracy if the president is somehow suggesting that maybe not all the votes matter."

And suggests the president has more power than he does "i will use some hard words.

I will say this is an authoritarian strategy."

""i will be very blunt.

That sort of rhetoric and action is what authoritarian leaders do."now political analysts do expect a recount in key battleground states --similarly to 20 years ago in florida during the gore vs bush presidential election but unlike the florida recount --political scientists don't believe the supreme court will get involved "chief justice roberts is pretty concerned with the integrity of the court and i think the court is pretty cautious after 200 because there was a fair amount of backlash after what was perceived as a court's interference in the election."

Right now - political scientists say there is no legal standing to stop the count of legal ballotsbut they say to buckle up -- because the recount will be long and litigious"brace yourself because this is not going to be over even once the votes are counting because the president even said there will be litigation and vice president biden said if it is litigation, they will fight it."

Reporting in st.

Joseph kilee thomas kq2