News organizations rebuke Trump on election results claim

In a stunning scene in the middle of the night, news organizations rebuked President Donald Trump after he falsely said on live television that he had won reelection even as votes were still being counted.

With reporters and supporters gathered at the White House at 2:20 a.m. Eastern, the president said it was “a major fraud on our nation” that he hadn't been declared the winner. "As far as I'm concerned, we already have won this,” he said.

The words were barely out of his mouth before television anchors rushed to refute him.

CBS News' Norah O'Donnell said Trump was “castrating the facts” by “falsely claiming that he has won the election and disenfranchising millions of voters whose ballots have not been counted.”

“Donald Trump is losing right now both in the popular vote and the electoral vote and there are many states left to be called,” ABC News' George Stephanopoulos said.

Said NBC News' Savannah Guthrie, “The fact of the matter is we don't know who won the election.” Guthrie had interrupted Trump's speech to tell viewers that several of Trump's statements were not true.

The Associated Press said that at the time of Trump's statement, its count had Trump winning 213 electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden's 225. The AP has determined that it's too early to declare a winner in several states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan.

It was an explosive moment after a frazzled nation had sat through hours of uncertainty. Media outlets had warned for weeks that Americans would have to be patient waiting for a decision in the bitter campaign between Biden and Trump, and repeatedly drove that point home through their election night coverage.

Biden had spoken to supporters at 12:42 a.m. in Delaware, expressing confidence in his campaign and...