Lt. Governor John Fetterman on Trump's election lawsuits: 'Math doesn't care about your feelings'

Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania John Fetterman joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to share his thoughts on President Trump's election lawsuits.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: The Trump campaign continuing to attempt to prevent states from certifying elections due to their claims of voter fraud. Let's dig into some of this more now with Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania John Fetterman.

Lieutenant Governor, so we were just hearing from Jess Smith about where we stand in respect to all of the lawsuits. Pennsylvania has been one of the suits-- or one of the states rather targeted by the Trump campaign for some of the lawsuits. As you see it and where you guys stand right now in Pennsylvania, are you expecting that every single one of these lawsuits are going to be thrown out?

JOHN FETTERMAN: Yeah. I mean, LOL, you know? Like send another 1,000 lawyers, you're going to get the same-- you're going to get the same answer, you know?

It's your story, tell it the way you need to. Send as many lawyers as you want. But the bottom line is math doesn't care about your feelings, math doesn't care about your baseless lies and allegations, and math has made Joe Biden President-elect and you are standing in the way of an orderly transition. And it's just time we get on with it.

So this idea that you somehow can alter the outcome through a lawsuit without any evidence, without any facts, when the math is overwhelmingly against you, I don't understand, you know, why they want to continue this on.

KRISTIN MYERS: So we had a postal worker in Pennsylvania who raised allegations of fraud. That would be Richard Hawkins. And he has since recanted those allegations. That's all according to the House Oversight Committee.

And they tweeted. I just want to read the tweet for everyone here. USPS, United States Postal Service, IG investigators-- so inspector general investigators-- informed committee staff today that they interviewed Hawkins on Friday, but that Hawkins recanted his allegations yesterday.

JOHN FETTERMAN: What [? is the point? ?]

KRISTIN MYERS: --and did not explain why he signed a false affidavit. I know that you also have tweeted about fraud to your counterpart in Texas. That however, was someone who was trying to vote for President Trump. Are there any other allegations as you know them inside the state of Pennsylvania?

JOHN FETTERMAN: No. No. And I got my eye out, because I want some of that reward from the Lieutenant Governor in Texas. But you know, I held up my end of the bargain, Governor. I sent you evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, and this man is charged for voter fraud for voting for Trump with his dead mother's ballot. And I just want to know like when can I expect, you know, the reward?

And again, the Cowboys are lousy and the Steelers are undefeated. And you know, other than that, everything else is pretty much the same that we are running away with the lead in Pennsylvania. The margin continues to grow. And these lawsuits are nothing but lies attached to an agenda of continual chaos, when there isn't one person from the president on down that actually believes any of this. And we all have to collectively turn our backs on all of this nonsense and say and affirm that yelling voter fraud in the absence of one scintilla of evidence is the metaphorical yelling fire in a crowded theater. And that is not free, protected speech. That is dangerous and that is and cannot be acceptable.

KRISTIN MYERS: I'm also curious to know if he'll be receiving that $1 million--

JOHN FETTERMAN: $1 million, yes, you know, the Dr. Evil.

KRISTIN MYERS: $1 million from the lieutenant governor of Texas.

JOHN FETTERMAN: Yes, [? I was ?] [? supposed to ?] get $1 million. But the bottom line is this, it's like, you know, like-- you know, if they're going to bring their A game, now's the time, because right now it hasn't amounted to anything. And it's embarrassing, like you know? Like at the end of the day, it's like if this is the best you've got, like you know, every Republican in Pennsylvania is looking for voter fraud, and you know, what, eight, nine days later, they still can't find it, except for the one dude in Luzerne County that voted for Trump with his dead mother. You know, like at the end of the day, like how many chances are you going to get to come up with something, anything at this point. And I think we all just, again, as I said, just need to collectively turn our back to this nonsense, turn the page to and embrace the Biden transition.

KRISTIN MYERS: So to that point, because I want to read for everyone at home something from the documents. It was a transcript between a Pennsylvania judge and one of Trump's attorneys, Mr. Goldstein, where he says, quote, that to his knowledge at present, "no, he is not alleging any fraud." This is, of course, in relation to about 600 ballots inside the state.

So I have to ask you, because you're kind of hinting at this. They're not alleging any fraud. As you say, they have not produced any evidence. So why then continuing to push forward, do you think, with these lawsuits in the state of Pennsylvania, in the state of Michigan? Is it all just a PR stunt? Is that how you're seeing it, that this is just for publicity?

JOHN FETTERMAN: I can't-- I don't know. I mean, it's great for billable hours for the legal team. I mean, I know that. I guess, I wouldn't mind being on-- but again, assuming that the Lieutenant Governor of Texas sends me my reward. I mean, it must be pretty nice to be filing baseless lawsuits and getting paid for it, but I don't know what the upside is to be honest with you.

And let's also get one other thing out. They keep threatening to go to the Supreme Court over these so-called late arriving ballots in Pennsylvania that arrived from 8:00 PM election day until Friday. And I'm like, take them, have them, you know? Like give them all to the president as far as I'm concerned. Because we're talking maybe 10,000 ballots and the president-elect's lead is, you know, on the order of 50,000 votes and growing. It's not going to have any impact.

Like there is no card to play left, none. And it's not dignified. It's long stopped being dignified.

And at the end of the day, we just have to get down to one fact and that's math. And math has said the President-elect is Joe Biden. And it's time that we turn our backs on this nonsense and turn the page for a Biden transition. Our country needs to unite and really take care of the true enemy in all of this, and that's the coronavirus that is killing, you know, what, 1,400 Americans every day and growing.

KRISTIN MYERS: I want to ask you what you view to be the most damaging about all of these allegations? Is it undermining the trust of the American people? Is it undermining our electoral process?

And moving forward, you just spoke about unity. How do you govern a people that don't trust you? How do you begin to move forward once all of this finally does end when your own residents of your state believe that somehow you, the governor, and others inside the state have stolen an election?

JOHN FETTERMAN: I don't-- I reject that question out of hand, with all due respect. A majority of people don't believe that. Half the population doesn't believe that.

You know, there are people that are like-- they call them protest beliefs, where they'll-- they might say something or other, but they know it's-- they know what time it really is and everyone knows. Like they loved the election result in 2016. So Governor Wolf was governor then. Now, what changed other than a result that you don't like?

And the bottom line is that people have already accepted this on the ground. When Fox News calls a state against the president, that is as nail in the coffin for a campaign as I think it gets, quite frankly. And there isn't one reputable, even disreputable news organization that isn't called-- hasn't called this race over. And again, it's all over but the crying.

And I would just hope that the president just acknowledges math. And when he does, he will step up and step down and allow for a Biden presidency to begin to assume and help unite this country.

KRISTIN MYERS: I want to ask you about something that you mentioned just a moment ago, which is, of course, coronavirus. We are seeing the virus surging all across the country, including inside your state of Pennsylvania. Are you guys thinking about or anticipating that you might be forced to do some sort of lockdowns? That curfews might be coming to some cities inside of Pennsylvania?

JOHN FETTERMAN: I don't believe that's currently the plan, quite frankly, because the governor has done an outstanding job in making sure our PPE stocks are high, our ventilator capacity is robust. And we are prepared for what was we would expect there was going to be a surge.

What I would hope is we could stop arguing about masks. Like for God's sakes, you know, arguing about a piece of cloth over your face that stops the virus from coming to you or you infecting somebody else, that is a political football. And that's one of the things that I hope the President Joe Biden can begin to start addressing, where stop arguing over public health measures.

You know, we-- like we wouldn't be arguing whether or not you should flush your toilet after you're done using it. I mean, it's public health. It's basic sanitary measures. And somehow we've been arguing about masking during a pandemic. Like that's just peak 2020 at this point.

We need to move on and we need to accept math and we need to accept science and epidemiology, and realize that the only enemy at this point is this virus, because it is claiming 1,400 of our fellow citizens' lives every day, and that's expected to grow.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right. Trust math, trust science. Those are great ending words for this conversation. Thank you so much for joining us, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania John Fetterman.

JOHN FETTERMAN: Thank you.