President Trump said the pressure he put on “cheating” California Democrats resulted in Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton advancing to the November general election.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump once again hit out the the state’s election process amid questions over slow vote counting and claims of fraud in the primary election.
Some of the claims stemmed from the sudden fall of Spencer Pratt from the No. 2 spot in the Los Angeles mayoral election after seeing strong results on Election Day.
“After a week, they determined that a kid who’s leading and had all the mojo, all of the sudden he doesn’t make the runoff, and then I hit them hard on that,” Trump said of the former reality TV star.
“I started talking about Steve Hilton, who’s a fantastic guy, and I saw them say it was going to be two weeks before they knew [the results], and I started hitting them.
“It’s going to happen to Steve Hilton too,” Trump continued, warning that the GOP candidate could face the same fate as Pratt.
Trump suggested that because “there was too much heat on them,” officials “approved Steve Hilton very quickly.”
“The only reason he got approved, he had all the votes he needed, probably to be first place,” the president added.
“But the only reason they approved Steve Hilton, it was going to be two weeks, they said. And then they approved it that night because the heat was on them because they’re cheating dogs.
“And you can’t have a great country when that happens.”
Hilton, a former Fox News host, will face Democrat Xavier Becerra in the November runoff after securing nearly 25% of the vote Tuesday, according to the AP.
“What an incredible honor to be chosen by Californians to lead the movement for change in the greatest state in the greatest nation on earth. There’s nowhere better than California,” Hilton said in a statement.
Hilton cited recent polling that shows a majority of Californians believe the state is on the wrong track and called Becerra the “ultimate career politician.”
“After 36 years in the political machine, his policies gave California the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate, and the highest cost of living in America. Now he promises ‘no change’ to those policies,” he said.
The general election will take place November 3.
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