{"id":350834,"date":"2026-06-07T19:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/350834\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:32:14","slug":"nbc-reporters-six-word-claim-about-california-elections-that-sparked-trump-storming-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/350834\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC reporter’s six-word claim about California elections that sparked Trump storming off"},"content":{"rendered":"

An NBC News reporter\u2019s comments about California\u2019s elections and the 2020 presidential race sparked President Trump to storm off their interview <\/a>Sunday.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker sparred with the commander-in-chief over his claims the state\u2019s voting was rigged as they take so long and Democrat candidates suddenly seen a late stream of votes from mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how they vote in California,\u201d Welker replied <\/a>after Trump pointed to the state\u2019s still-unfinished ballot count as proof that something nefarious was happening.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker sparred with the commander-in-chief over his claims the state\u2019s voting was rigged as they take so long and Democrat candidates suddenly seen a late stream of votes from mail-in ballots. NBC News<\/p>\n

The tense moment came during an interview on \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d when the president revived his longstanding allegations about election integrity while discussing California\u2019s primaries.<\/p>\n

The exchange became increasingly heated before Trump accused the network of bias and cut the interview short.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s happening again right now in California,\u201d Trump said, referring to the state\u2019s vote-counting process. \u201cThis is happening right now in California, right now. It\u2019s four days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president was referring to the fact that several high-profile California races remain too close to call as election officials continue processing ballots.<\/p>\n

Among the contests drawing national attention is the race to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom. <\/p>\n

Welker noted that Republicans appeared to be performing strongly on election night, referring to candidates such as Hilton and Pratt. NBC News<\/p>\n

After roughly 6.7 million ballots had been counted \u2014 about 71% of the expected statewide vote \u2014 Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra led with 27.0%. Republican Steve Hilton followed closely behind with 26.1%, while Democrat Tom Steyer trailed in third place with 21.3%.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles mayoral contest also remains tight. <\/p>\n

Reality television star Spencer Pratt holds 27.3% of the vote, while Democratic rival Nithya Raman has climbed to 26.2%, leaving the candidates separated by just 7,494 votes, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The exchange became increasingly heated before Trump accused the network of bias and cut the interview short. NBC News<\/p>\n

Welker noted that Republicans appeared to be performing strongly on election night, referring to candidates such as Hilton and Pratt.<\/p>\n

But Trump said as additional ballots have been counted, both races have tightened, prompting him to suggest the results were being manipulated.<\/p>\n

Election experts note that California\u2019s vote-counting process routinely takes significantly longer than many other states because of its voting laws. <\/p>\n

Californians can vote by mail, cast ballots at vote centers, use secure drop boxes or vote provisionally. Election officials are allowed to process mail ballots before Election Day by verifying signatures and preparing envelopes, but votes cannot be tabulated until polls close.<\/p>\n

California also accepts ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they were postmarked on time. In addition, voters have up to 14 days to correct certain signature or identification issues, extending the time needed to finalize results.<\/p>\n

By contrast, states such as Florida and Texas often report near-complete unofficial results on election night because they process large numbers of mail ballots before Election Day and impose stricter deadlines for receiving ballots.<\/p>\n

As Trump continued to insist that delayed results were evidence of wrongdoing, Welker repeatedly challenged him, arguing there was no evidence to support claims that California\u2019s elections had been rigged. <\/p>\n

The back-and-forth ultimately culminated with the president ending the interview early, telling the NBC host he had \u201chad enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An NBC News reporter\u2019s comments about California\u2019s elections and the 2020 presidential race sparked President Trump to storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,46666,9,8,536,79871,973,13,3586],"class_list":["post-350834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-governor-election-2026","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-mayoral-race","tag-media","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}