Florida Officials Say No Concrete Allegation of Voter Fraud as Recounts Continue
*By Christian Smith*
While President Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott continue to claim the recount in three tight Florida races is rampant with abuse, state law enforcement authorities say they have no concrete allegation of voter fraud to investigate.
"There is no allegation of fraud, and there's a legal definition that you have to meet in order for it to be voter fraud," Ana Ceballos, politics reporter for the USA Today Network in Florida, told Cheddar.
Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, has called on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate claims of voter fraud. The state's Attorney General, Republican Pam Bondi, echoed Scott's calls for an investigation, but FDLE has maintained that there are is no evidence to justify that step.
A mandatory machine recount was triggered in Florida's races for U.S. Senate, governor, and agriculture commissioner due to the razor-thin margins in those results.
According to unofficial results from Florida's counties on Saturday, Scott led Nelson in the senate race by about 12,500 votes, or about .15 percent of the total vote.
The race for governor isn't quite as close. Republican Ron DeSantis led Democrat Andrew Gillum by nearly 34,000 votes, or .41 percent.
The deadline for officials to complete the machine-recount is Thursday.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/usa-todays-ana-ceballos-discusses-the-controversies-surrounding-the-florida-recount).
The Hill's White House Correspondent Alex Gangitano joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the deterioration of Senator Manchin and President Biden's relationship, as the White House calls out the West Virginia lawmaker for "breaching his commitments to the President."
Airline executives faced tough questions from a Senate panel on Wednesday after receiving a $54 billion dollar Covid-19 government lifeline. Congress approved the fund in three rounds covering much of US airlines’ payroll costs for 18 months. During the hearing lawmakers asked CEO’s how they used the federal bailout funds, about staffing issues, flight cancellations, and delays. U.S. airlines reported a record $35 billion dollar loss last year when travel came to an abrupt halt because of the pandemic. Michael Boyd, CEO at the Boyd Group International explains why customers may not be returning to the skies quite so soon.
Senior Global Market Strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute Scott Wren joined Wake Up With Cheddar to recap the central bank's policy change, and how it may impact the economy moving forward.
Carlo's joined by a quarantining Baker to discuss the headlines from the weekend as Omicron spreads like wildfire, Manchin kills Biden's signature bill and Spider-Man throws a lifeline to the box office.
President Joe Biden is pledging to do “whatever it takes, as long as it takes” to help Kentucky and other states recover and rebuild after a series of deadly tornadoes that he says left a trail of unimaginable devastation.
The Federal Reserve has nixed the controversial word "transitory" to describe inflation in its latest policy statement. The change in language comes as the Fed plans to speed up its tapering of monthly asset purchases.
