Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to condemn US President Donald Trump for falsely claiming he won the American presidential election, saying it’s not his place to “run a commentary” on that extremely crooked statement.
Reporters this morning asked Morrison for his thoughts on the US democratic process and yesterday’s election, which remains in the balance despite Trump preemptively claiming victory over Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden and baselessly accusing his opponents of electoral fraud.
“I have great confidence in the democracy of the United States and I have great confidence in their institutions,” Morrison said.
“And the thing about great institutions and democracies is they deal with whatever challenges come, just like our own does.”
Ah yes, the great, infallible institutions of American democracy.
He went on to say that not only was the election an absolute ripper, it was a sign that democracy is working exactly as intended.
“I think, you know, a great democracy, having a great election with the greatest turnout it’s ever seen in its history is actually a demonstration of democracy working,” Morrison said.
Okay.
Morrison added that he hasn’t yet reached out to Trump or Biden, saying it’d be inappropriate to do so at this stage.
Really, the closest he came to any kind of opinion on Trump’s antics was a call for patience in the vote-counting process.
Other Australian pollies have gone further, pointing out that Trump’s handling of the (admittedly tight) election is cause for alarm.
It does track that Morrison would leave some kind of wiggle room here, given Australia’s cosy relationship with the US, and his seemingly solid ties with Trump himself.
While Morrison’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, reportedly had beef with Trump from the get-go, the relationship between the POTUS and the current PM seems a lot tighter.
They’ve even discussed their respective coronavirus response measures a few months back. Thankfully, Australia’s states and territories did not adopt Trump’s ‘fuck it, we’ll do it live’ approach to containing (lol) the pandemic.
At time of writing, Biden appears to have a narrow lead over Trump in the election. If the guy does successfully clear out the White House, we could see Morrison making some markedly different statements in the next few hours.
