NOEM: What 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. 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 the White House the next four years.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Noem, do you have any evidence 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.
STEPHANOPOULOS: 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 will 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?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor —
NOEM: If Joe Biden —
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Noem —
NOEM: If Joe Biden really wants to unify this country, he would wait and make sure that we can prove we had a fair election.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Noem, Al Gore, was behind by about 500 votes in one state, Florida. Joe Biden is ahead in all the close states by multiple —
NOEM: And look at how many more moving parts we have today.
STEPHANOPOULOS: 10,000 votes in Georgia, 27,000 votes in Nevada. Almost 20,000 votes in Arizona. More than 30,000 votes in Pennsylvania. That is not close. That is not within the margin that — that elections are usually turned around on.
NOEM: And many, many more states are in play this time around. And that’s what I think is interesting is this declaration from some individuals saying it was an overwhelming victory for Joe Biden. It simply wasn’t because you have so many of these states that are still in play. All I’m asking for, George, is that we don’t break this country. When you break the process on which we elect our leaders, you will break America forever.
So this isn’t just about this election. This is about every election in the future. And the fact that the American people, the everyday people who get up and work hard, that are suffering through this pandemic, that have tragically lost family members, that they need to know at least — at least America still functions, and we care about...
