When Donald Trump found out that Hillary Clinton was backing Jill Stein’s recount efforts, he proceeded to totally freak out and have a full-blown meltdown on Twitter. At the end of his unhinged rant, Trump claimed that he would have won the popular vote if it wasn’t for “millions of people who voted illegally.”
Ramping up his baseless claims, Trump then tweeted that there was “serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California.”
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
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn’t the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
However, officials from these states were quick to fire back against Trump’s claim that voter fraud was running rampant on their watch. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla sent out a couple tweets of his own.
— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) November 28, 2016
Another irresponsible attempt to undermine confidence in our elections. Baseless and counterproductive. https://t.co/DW3ETVTsVM
— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) November 27, 2016
Edgardo Cortés, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, said, “The claims of voter fraud in Virginia during the Nov. 8 election are unfounded. The election was fair and all votes cast by eligible voters were accurately counted.”
New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan, said, “We have heard claims like this in the past, relative to our elections, but we have been provided no evidence that suggests that there is voter fraud on a widespread scale in New Hampshire. When comments like that are made,” he added, “we become very concerned about the perception, which sometimes is more important than the reality when it comes to conducting elections because the voters need to feel confident that their votes are counted accurately.”
Trump doesn’t waste time with stuff like facts and if there is one thing he loves, it’s a good conspiracy theory, the more absurd, the better. Unfortunately for Trump, the officials of these three states aren’t willing to let him throw them under the bus and feed the public a bunch of lies.
Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images
