One of Pennsylvania’s top officials on Thursday defended anti-President Donald Trump social media posts she issued, as well as the state’s ballot-counting process.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, made the statements during a press conference that took place as the crucial battleground state continues counting ballots despite the election taking place days ago.
Boockvar started in 2015 to publicly disparage Trump on social media as he geared up for a presidential run. She shared links to stories critical of his campaign, such as one that claimed a Trump presidency would drive the United States into a lengthy recession.
“Look, these were four years ago, and at the time, I was not in the administration, I was not in any public service. I was a private citizen, it was a personal Twitter account,” Boockvar told reporters on Thursday.
“So that, and then when I became secretary of state, I took an oath, Dennis, and I took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Constitution of the United States. And partisan politics have no place in the Pennsylvania Department of State, or any county elections office, for that matter.”
Boockvar abruptly ended the press briefing after answering the question.
Boockvar was appointed acting Pennsylvania secretary of state in 2019 and was confirmed by the state Senate in November of last year.
“The eyes of the country are on Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania Democrats, led by their radical left Secretary of State whose only goal is to steal this election from President Trump, has kept eyes off of the absentee ballot counting process. That ends now in Philadelphia,” Justin Clark, a deputy campaign manager and senior counsel for the Trump campaign, said in a statement following the ruling.
Boockvar was not asked about the matter during the briefing.
But she defended the state’s ballot counting process.
“I know all of you, everybody around the country, around the state are, are eagerly awaiting, and I can tell you, the counties are, too. They are really taking their time, making sure that every single voter in the Commonwealth who has cast their ballot is having those ballots accurately and securely counted,” she said.
“We’re going to keep counting. Military and overseas ballots, I think, are coming in, those will continue to be accepted through next Tuesday. There are obviously provisional ballots that will have to be counted as well after the initial round of ballots. I think whatever, whatever the outcomes are, I can tell you that I’m so proud to work with the 67 counties, the election officials who are just doing an amazing job getting these counted accurately and securely.”
Under a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, ballots that arrived up to three days after the election will be counted, provided they were postmarked by Election Day or do not have a clear postmark.
Shapiro posted just days before the election that Trump was going to lose the state “if all the votes are added up.”
Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.
