Trump steps up criticism of vote recount

President-elect Donald Trump and his top aides double down on their criticism of Hillary Clinton’s camp for joining a vote recount in Wisconsin, terming the decision “ridiculous” and “a waste of time.”

With the recount threatening to revive debate about the legitimacy of Trump’s victory — Clinton won far more popular votes, while he carried the all-important Electoral College count — Trump aides push back hard, even while continuing to wage an extraordinarily public battle over the makeup of the future cabinet.

In his latest early-morning Twitter storm, Trump quotes Clinton about the need to respect the electoral process, calling the presidential vote recount “sad.” It is time for people to accept the November 8 result and move ahead, he says.

Trump’s top aide Kellyanne Conway appears at least to hint that if the Clinton team pushes too hard on the recount, the president-elect might rethink his vow not to seek Clinton’s prosecution for using a private email server when she was secretary of state.

While Trump is being “magnanimous” toward Clinton, “I guess her attitude toward that is to have her counsel go and join this ridiculous recount,” Conway says on ABC.

And Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, says that while the president-elect is not “seeking methods and ways to persecute and prosecute Hillary Clinton,” Trump will probably be “open to listening,” should any new findings against her emerge from future investigations.

— AFP