Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon condemned what she called the president’s “naked effort to take away the rights of American citizens.” 

Roundly rebuking President Donald Trump for falsely claiming victory and “major fraud” with millions of votes still uncounted in the 2020 election, Joe Biden’s campaign manager early on Wednesday accused the president of attempting “a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the casting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect,” said Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon in a statement. 

She was referring to Trump’s stunning—but anticipated—”victory” speech at the White House, delivered shortly before 2:30 a.m., in which he accused a “very sad group of people” of “trying to disenfranchise” his supporters.

“This is a fraud on the American public,” the president declared, without a whit of evidence. “We were getting ready to win this election.”

“Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump lied. 

“This is a major fraud on this nation,” he lied again. 

“We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Trump inexplicably vowed. “We want all voting to stop.”

“We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list,” he said, conflating legitimate uncounted ballots with voting, and ignoring that by law, crucial swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin cannot even start counting mail-in ballots until Election Day—and the latter two states must wait until after polls close at 8:00 p.m. to begin counting mail ballots. 

“We will win this,” Trump assured his supporters, “and as far as I’m concerned we already have won.” 

Not so fast, said O’Malley Dillon. “Donald Trump does not decide the outcome of this election,” she said in her statement. “Joe Biden does not decide the outcome of this election. The American people decide the outcome of this election. And the democratic process must and will continue until its conclusion.” 

Journalists, progressive leaders in the U.S. and around the world, and voting rights advocates reacted to Trump’s statement with a combination of outrage and resolve. 

“Counting ALL ballots isn’t the same thing as voting,” tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who handily won re-election on Tuesday. “You can’t stop ballots from being counted. This isn’t a dictatorship.” 

“Donald Trump’s premature claims of victory are illegitimate, dangerous, and authoritarian,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was also reelected Tuesday. “Count the votes. Respect the results.”