CLEVELAND — As President Trump gave prepared remarks from the White House Thursday night, the world took note.
Cuyahoga County’s GOP leader Lisa Stickan and Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper were among them. Though Pepper called the remarks "unhinged," Stickan said it was about a free, honest, open election.
"I would think that in terms of his concerns, they should be anyone’s concerns," Stickan said. "If there are incidents or evidence of some problems, then I think that there should be some examination of that."
Pepper, who is also an attorney, countered, "I haven’t seen anything yet that makes me think the legal part will drag out in some significant way."
Pepper is hopeful the counting process will end sooner rather than later, and that the president’s legal claims go away.
"I think most of these things will be dismissed outright," Pepper said. "If other litigants brought things this flimsy forward, they would actually probably get in trouble by the court."
Pepper underscored the contrast to Joe Biden, who declared on Thursday that "the process is working."
“Joe Biden has been presidential," Pepper noted ."He’s been calm, he’s been fair, he’s said that he’s everybody’s president."
Stickan underscored staying calm.
"I think there are some concerns this is taking a while, and I know there needs to be patience with the process," she said. "I also think prejudging things early, night-of calling states and then only to take them back at some point on some networks, I think that’s really giving some people a lot of concern."
Election pollsters have been getting heat as some Republican lawmakers give rare rebukes. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that taking days to count legally cast votes is not fraud.