‘Beyond the pale’: Fox News reacts to Trump’s false claim he has won the election and call for ballots not to be counted

President prematurely claimed victory at around 2am on Wednesday, with many ballots still to be counted

Prominent Republicans and conservative commentators joined President Donald Trump’s opponents to criticise his false claim of having already won the US presidential election. 

Among those condemning the president was the Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, who said his claim to victory was “beyond the pale”, while political commentator Dana Perino called it “deeply irresponsible."

The former Republican governor of New Jersey Chris Christie told ABC News that there was “just no basis to make that argument tonight.”  

On being asked whether Mr Trump’s claim was a political move, the former GOP governor replied in affirmative. "It is, but it's got to be bigger than that,” adding that he “disagrees” with what the president did.

“I think it’s a bad strategic decision, it’s a bad political decision, and it’s not the kind of decision you’d expect someone to make tonight who holds the position he (Mr Trump) holds,” Mr Christie told the news network.  

The backlash came after Mr Trump prematurely declared victory in his fight for a second term against former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he is poised to ask the Supreme Court to halt all vote-counting even as many ballots remained untallied.  

“Millions of people voted for us tonight. A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people,” the president said from the East Room of the White House. “And we won’t stand for it.”

Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum also echoed the concerns of Mr Christie. He told CNN that he was “very distressed” by what he heard the president say.  

He said: “The president is prone as we know to bluster and fits of pique and being upset about how he’s treated. I don’t have any problem… I think Joe Biden said similar things, ‘I think I won,’ and that’s fine. You think you won, that’s great. But the idea of using the word fraud and fraud is being committed by people counting votes is wrong.”  

Representative Adam Kinzinger, also a member of the Republican party tweeted at the president to “stop.”

“Stop. Full stop. The votes will be counted and you will either win or lose. And America will accept that. Patience is a virtue,” Kinzinger wrote on Twitter.