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Following the president’s claims of election fraud, Margaret Brennan, host of CBS’ , confirmed to Dave Ross on Seattle’s Morning News that CBS News has no evidence of fraud nor of illegal or corrupted ballots being counted.

“The Nevada Attorney General was on our broadcast this morning responding to some of the lawsuits that have actually been filed already in that state regarding the count and some of the allegations,” Brennan said. “Obviously, this is something that we’ll continue to follow. But so far he said there was nothing to what he had seen.”

A lawsuit requires substantiating allegations, she explained, so evidence will have to be presented to back up any claims. Brennan assured that CBS News is watching that and will report on any findings.

“In the state of Pennsylvania, where there’s a lot of focus as they continue to go through their vote tally, Senator Pat Toomey, Republican from that state, was on our air this morning saying he has seen no evidence thus far of fraud,” Brennan added. “Keep in mind, mail ballots are counted last in many of these states. So even if they arrived first, they are counted last.”

There were extended deadlines in many states as each state runs their own election, but that does not mean that the counts include illegal ballots.

“Because of the high volume due to the pandemic, they have allowed themselves more time to count in some places, but that is not illegal,” Brennan said. “That is what the state decided legally to do. So it is not clear at all what the president is talking about when he talks about illegal ballots.”

Extended deadlines are also not a way to sneak illegal ballots into tabulation centers, as Dave Ross confirmed, and it does not mean anyone can still vote today.

“[Voting has] been over,” Brennan said. “But it is just allowing for the delivery of some of the mail, particularly in states that don’t have a long history of having high volume mail in voting, and a number of states don’t, right? I mean, it’s only really five that have this as kind of a mainstay every single year.”

“So particularly in the state of Pennsylvania, where they only started counting mail-in ballots day of, and in some counties, seven of them in particular, they started counting November 4th,” Brennan added. “The local officials there are doing their best to follow through on actually counting. And it’s a good time to remind ourselves that this is actually how our system is built.”

States don’t have a hard deadline to report until mid-December, Brennan added.

Brennan also said it’s unclear what the president is referring to as the conspiracy in Philadelphia.

“The city of Philadelphia, obviously, is a huge population center for the state of Pennsylvania and a Democratic leaning city,” she said. “So as votes are continuing to be tallied there, they are not believed to be in the president’s favor. Perhaps that’s what he’s referring to, that these are newly counted Democratic ballots, but that’s just simply something that even the Republican Party signaled, remember? They told us day of voting they thought would skew Republican; mail in voting would skew Democrat. So it’s just a matter of which got counted first.”

Brennan says there are some big questions the parties need to address, pointing to a few places where Democrats were expected to win and didn’t.

“If you look at how the races went in some of the congressional seats in the House and in the Senate, Democrats did not get the blue wave they were hoping for,” Brennan added. “So there was some misdiagnosis perhaps of the strength of Trump’s support, particularly among working class America. Big questions for Democrats to ask themselves: Why are they not connecting? Is it, as Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, said that the party has become about coastal elites and not the working class? Democrats need to hit the reset button.”

Right now, Republican candidates, Brennan explained, are split in their support of the president’s charges of fraud as many of them have won in the same areas where President Trump claims illegal ballots are being counted.

“Particularly those who are positioned to try to seek a brighter political future for themselves are in a pretty uncomfortable position. I’m thinking of people like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has emphasized time and again [to] let the process play out,” she said. “Senator Mitch McConnell, who is the Republican leader, tweeted this morning that the process needs to play out, illegal ballots shouldn’t count, ballots that are legal should count.”

“Well, [it’s] not clear that there are illegal ballots at this point,” she added. “But he’s basically trying to split the difference of not condemning the president while still emphasizing here that the democratic process is what our country is built on. So for all those elected officials who have taken oath, it is to the Constitution, it is not to a particular person. So it’s a reminder there, again, democracy only works if people have faith in it, and letting the process play out is the best way to do that.”

Ross: Disturbing to see Trump trying to end the election game at halftime

There have also been legal Republican poll watchers allowed to view the process, and in many places there are livestreams of the tabulation centers that almost anybody can watch.

“And in the state of Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign did have a small victory in having some of their campaign officials be allowed to be present, physically present, to watch some of that happen at a socially distanced position,” Brennan added.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.