TOPLINE
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) floated a baseless conspiracy theory Tuesday night that media networks deliberately are holding back from calling the race in Florida for President Trump because they want to suppress the vote in other swing states—a wild claim that was quickly picked up by the Trump campaign.
By 11 p.m. EDT, major television networks had yet to call Florida for President Trump, prompting some members of the Trump campaign to cry foul even as the results remained close, and anchors reminded viewers it was difficult to project states with speed due to the large influx of mail ballots.
“It’s over,” Rubio argued on Twitter, “So why won’t they call the race?”
The Florida senator went on to claim the networks had held back from calling Florida “to deny Trump an early swing state” before polls closed in Arizona and Nevada—suggesting the media networks had refrained from making the call deliberately to suppress the Trump vote.