“He very clearly crossed a line by saying votes should stop being counted,” said Michael Link, the leader of an electoral observer mission to the U.S. by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “To use a sports analogy, when you’re in the middle of the game and you’re leading with 40 minutes to go, you can’t stop the game just because you want to win.”…

“This weakens the moral authority of the U.S. when speaking out about other countries’ elections, and that will embolden dictators around the world,” said Cheeseman, who is temporarily based in East Africa but is a professor of democracy and international development at England’s University of Birmingham…

“If we have people talking about stolen elections left right and center, then we are only going to put a smile on the face of people like President Putin, President Xi,” Hunt said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, “who will look at their own people and say: Aren’t you pleased you haven’t got any of this mess?”