The Note: More Trouble with Trump's Tweets

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November 28, 2016

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More Trouble with Trump's Tweets

Trump Makes Baseless Claim That 'Millions' Voted Illegally, Costing Him Popular Vote

President-elect Donald Trump spent yesterday lashing out against the movement to force general election vote recounts in three states that were critical to his Electoral College victory, but he is now alleging that "millions of people" voted illegally, costing him the popular vote, ABC's KATHERINE FAULDERS notes. "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," Trump inaccurately claimed in a tweet, alleging -- without any factual basis to make the claim -- that millions of people voted for Hillary Clinton illegally. Clinton currently leads the national popular vote by close to 2 million votes. In subsequent tweets Trump said "It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 -- states instead of the 15 states that I visited. I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!" http://abcn.ws/2gN3QgU

What Trump is Tweeting

@realDonaldTrump: Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!

Backstory

In none of the tweets did Trump point to any evidence of voter fraud to account for his claim and no other evidence of his assertion has emerged since the election. ABC News reached out for comment to election officials in the three states Trump named, but had not received a response Sunday evening. The Clinton campaign's general counsel Marc Elias tweeted Sunday night that "We are getting attacked for participating in a recount that we didn't ask for by the man who won election but thinks there was massive fraud." Elias announced Saturday in a post on Medium that the campaign would participate in the recount efforts, but is not seeking to cast any doubt on the Electoral College results, adding they have not found "any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology," after looking into the matter. http://abcn.ws/2gN3QgU

Analysis - ABC's RICK KLEIN

In fairness, Donald Trump always said the election was rigged. But is fairness what is demanded when the president-elect traffics in conspiracy theories about the integrity of the election he won – while presenting no evidence, credible or otherwise? Winning did not, evidently, provide Trump with any additional grace, just as it isn't keeping him away from Twitter rants. This isn't strategy – it's personality, marked by impulsiveness and no filter. It's also dangerous – dangerous to trust in the political system, and also to the fortunes of the president-elect himself. If Trump's goal is to earn the respect of the American people – including, yes, the more than half of voters who didn't support him – questioning the legitimacy of their votes is a curious way to start. The next president is now on record objecting to the concept of votes being counted fully, even while no one seriously questions his legitimacy. He's now going even further, suggesting that millions of votes were improperly and/or illegally cast. All of this is happening in a contest that he won. Imagine how Trump might react when he loses a political fight.