NEW YORK CITY – Top supporters of Donald Trump expressed confidence in the Republican presidential nominee’s chances late Tuesday night, even as a number of electoral vote-rich states remained too close to call.
Seconds before Fox News projected wins for Hillary Clinton in Virginia and Colorado and a victory for Trump in Ohio, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions said election returns proved that the Republican presidential nominee could “absolutely” ride the “extraordinary movement” he built to the White House.
“I believe this is not a mindless reaction by the American people. I think it is a frustration that has been building for a number of years,” Sessions, who became an adviser to the GOP nominee in the early days of his campaign, told the Washington Examiner.
“Americans have been disappointed by their government and they’re showing it at the ballot box,” he added.
“I’m feeling hopefully optimistic,” Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes told the Examiner as she made her way through a sea of supporters at the billionaire’s election night party who were waiting in line to replenish their alcoholic beverages.
“What I want to see at this point is the rest of the states to be declared before we hit the West Coast,” Hughes said. “This was always my fear – that we were going to get to later on in the night and neither candidate was going to be near 270.”
Major battleground states of North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Michigan remained too close to call around 10 p.m. ET, at which time the New York Times adjusted its presidential forecast to give Trump an 80 percent chance of becoming the next commander in chief.
