Fox News’ Chris Wallace says Trump ‘threw a match at a flammable situation'

Donald Trump’s 2am speech claiming victory has been dismissed by a veteran Fox News host

Fox News host Chris Wallace has accused Donald Trump of “throwing a match” at “a flammable situation” with his White House speech claiming victory in the early hours.

“This is an extremely flammable situation and the just president threw a match into it, ” Wallace said.

"He hasn’t won these states. Nobody is saying he won these states. The states haven’t said he’s won. 

"This goes right back to what Joe Biden said: the president doesn’t get to say he’s won states, the American people get to say it, and the state officials get to declare it.

“I don’t know whether he literally means it, but he said we will be going to the Supreme Court because we want the all voting to stop. Well, voting to stop, yes, but vote counting?”

Wallace noted that “states routinely aren’t able to count all the votes by election night, and it goes on for days.”

He said they did not have to certify who has won for weeks.

If Mr Trump genuinely wants to stop vote counting, Wallace said, “that is extremely inflammatory and frankly I don’t think something the courts would allow.”

Mr Trump made a speech early Wednesday morning praising the American people for voting and accusing the Democratic Party of trying to steal the election. 

"Frankly, we did win this election," Mr Trump said, adding that he would take the election to the Supreme Court. 

"We were winning everything and suddenly it was just called off," he continued. "We won the great state of Ohio, we won Texas by 700,000 votes and they don't even include it in the tabulations." 

His assertion of victory does not match the results and information currently available. 

At this stage in the race, according to AP counts, Trump has 213 electoral votes while Biden has 238. Trump would need 270 electoral votes to win. 

Several key states are too early to call, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan.

Speaking in the White House East Room, Mr Trump told supporters that "millions and millions of people voted for us. And a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people. And we won't stand for it." 

Mr Trump said the White House was "getting ready for a big celebration" before "all of the sudden it was just called off." 

The president rattled off a list of states that he claims he won, despite the fact that many are still being counted, and insisted the Democrats "can't catch us." 

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders responded to Mr Trump’s speech on Twitter saying: “Let’s be clear. This election won’t be over when Trump says it’s over. It will be over after every vote is counted. That includes mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day, as well as military ballots. This is a democracy. Whether Trump likes it or not, we count every vote.”