Trump assails recount push, claims millions voted illegally
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with reporters, columnists and company leadership from the New York Times, at the publication’s headquarters in New York, Nov. 22, 2016.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Construction continues on the presidential reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, Friday, Nov. 25, 2016, looking toward the White House and the Washington Monument. The reviewing stand is where then President Donald Trump will view the inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 2017.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. >> President-elect Donald Trump claimed without evidence Sunday that “millions” voted illegally in the national election, scoffing at Hillary Clinton’s nearly 2 million edge in the popular vote and returning to his campaign mantra of a rigged race even as he prepares to enter the White House in less than two months.
Trump and his lieutenants assailed an effort — now joined by Clinton — to recount votes in up to three battleground states, calling the push fraudulent, the work of “crybabies” and, in Trump’s estimation, “sad.”
The president-elect went on to cast a shadow over the legitimacy of an election that he actually won, tweeting that “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” He provided further contended that if the popular vote determined the presidency, “It would have been much easier for me to win” it because he would have altered his campaign to pile up overall vote totals, not Electoral College votes.
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
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There’s been no indication of widespread vote manipulation, illegal voting or hacking that materially affected the outcome one way or the other. It’s that very lack of evidence that suggests Trump is likely to prevail in recounts.
As Trump worked to fill foreign policy and national security posts in his Cabinet, a top adviser expressed astonishment that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney remained under consideration for secretary of state after his campaign-long questioning of Trump’s character, intellect and integrity.
Trump on Sunday tweeted part of Clinton’s concession speech, when she told supporters they must accept that “Donald Trump is going to be our president,” and snippets from her debate remarks, when she denounced the Republican nominee for refusing to say in advance that he would accept the Election Day verdict.
This came on top of his saying it was a “scam” that Green Party nominee Jill Stein was revisiting the vote count in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Trump won Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and as of Wednesday, held a lead of almost 11,000 votes in Michigan, with the results awaiting state certification Monday. His Michigan margin was a hair’s breadth 0.22 percent of the state’s votes.
Clinton leads the national popular vote by close to 2 million votes, but Trump won 290 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232, not counting Michigan. She could conceivably tip the electoral balance in the remote event that all flipped to her in recounts.
Trump planned to return to New York on Sunday after spending Thanksgiving weekend at his West Palm Beach estate. His transition team said the president-elect had scheduled a series of meetings Monday with prospective administration hires.
Among the jobs Trump has still yet to fill: secretary of state. Internal division over the position again spilled out into the open on Sunday as Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway voiced her concerns with the possibility of Romney landing such a significant position.
Trump supporters “feel a bit betrayed that you can get a Romney back in there after everything he did,” Conway said. “We don’t even know if he voted for Donald Trump. He and his consultants were nothing but awful to Donald Trump for a year.” She added that she was “reflecting what the grassroots are saying.”
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker are among other prospects to serve as the country’s top diplomat.
“I’m all for party unity, but I’m not sure we have to pay for that with the secretary of state position,” Conway said.
Trump’s incoming chief of staff, national party Chairman Reince Priebus, acknowledged that Romney would represent “a team of rivals concept.”
Trump was mostly silent on the brewing recount effort until it became known that Clinton would join it, at least in Wisconsin. On Saturday, a day after Wisconsin officials said they would conduct the first presidential recount in the state’s history, Clinton campaign attorney Marc Elias said: “We intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides.”
Elias said Clinton would take the same approach in Pennsylvania and Michigan if Stein were to follow through with recount requests in those states.
That loosened Trump’s tongue.
“Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Nothing will change.”
He quoted from her concession speech — “We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead” — and he concluded: “So much time and money will be spent – same result! Sad.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Conway said Stein, “the Hillary people” and others supporting recounts have to decide whether they are going to back a peaceful transition “or if they’re going to be a bunch of crybabies and sore losers about an election that they can’t turn around.”
Priebus, on “Fox News Sunday,” called the effort a “total and complete distraction and a fraud and something that they should drop.”
Clinton’s lawyer said her team has been combing through the results since the election in search of anomalies that would suggest hacking by Russians or others and found “no actionable evidence” of an altered outcome. Moreover, Elias said, Trump has a vote lead even in the closest states that well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount.
But “we feel it is important, on principle, to ensure our campaign is legally represented in any court proceedings and represented on the ground in order to monitor the recount process itself,” he said.
Trump beat Clinton in Wisconsin by fewer than 22,200 votes, less than 1 percent of votes cast. He won Pennsylvania by some 70,600 votes, just more than 1 percentage point over Clinton.
88 responses to “Trump assails recount push, claims millions voted illegally”
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Led by maladorous people like klassless and kukai, the Demmies are on their way to destroy the fabric of Democracy.
They are indeed fortunate Mr. Trump will make America Great Again even for racist, bigots, commies, rotten apples and the like.
They were wrong when they said Mr. Trump didn’t have a chance and continue to be wrong.
If they lived anywhere else they’d be locked up or disappear..
remove it if you like. I said nothing wrong.
I guess that’s why we live in this country. We all have the right to our opinion!That is called a free country.Calling people who you don’t agree with names is not very American. We can agree to disagree with out the rudeness, because that shuts off the discussion and then we can’t move on to solve problems! You can say something but be polite,so we can hve a discussion!
You must mean the Demmies. Just a page out of their play book. The deplorables? I wonder who came up with that one. Cost her the election.
The problem with people like lespark is that they continue to frame politics as a war between Democrats and Republicans. News flash: more than 4.4 million Americans voted for Gary Johnson. Add the 1.4 million who voted for Jill Stein and that’s nearly six million voters who stood in line to cast their ballot AGAINST Clinton and Trump.
When was the last time either party did something positive for the little guy on the federal level? I can’t think of anything in the past three decades. Time to throw the bums out.
Actually, the telling point is that the biggest representation of the electorate is the vast number of qualified adults who didn’t bother to vote at all. In this country the sad fact remains that the average American could care less if a robot, an inflatable “Dutch Wife” or mannequin sat in the Oval Office or slept in the White House.
It’s been like this for quite some time.
Delta , I think you miss the point. There are so many people just flat sick of the Swamp Dwellers that they honestly don’t think their vote counts ffor anything and gave given up.
With any luck , seeing an outsider win and a meaningfully good job of governing Trump can
Overcome this and we will see more next election.
IRT to Waterman: I agree people the vast amount of people in America are flat out sick of the “Swamp Dwellers” and want a change. Trump is a change from the “Swamp Dwellers” but is he a real change that actually represent the people that are supporting him or is he just a “Swamp Dweller” in disguise or a different form?
Do you think that Republicans also possess this playbook that you speak of? Or, do you think it is exclusive to Democrats? If you had to I am sure you could pick some plays from this book that Trump used during the campaign.
Mr. Trump is just on another of his psychotic Twitter outbursts when he lies and makes ridiculous, irresponsible claims.
He is obsessed with the fact that he badly lost the popular vote, and this will eat away at his mind every single day for the next four years. He will never give up on this slight to his greatness.
This is the disgrace that has been delivered to the United States by Trump supporters – a profoundly mentally ill and unstable president-elect. Thanks a lot.
“Mentally ill”? You sound “mentally ill”. Trump wins 2 terms, get over it loser.
Lmao lespark, you hit it the nail on the head.
Hanoi Lespark wants America to be Great Again. America has always been great. We nevah wuz less than great. Love America or leave it.
Trump is such a joke. Such a phony. He threatened to not recognize the rigged elections. One day the full story on this dude’s connections to Russian organized crime and government will come out.
Seems like the jokes on you guys allie. Republicans kept the House and the Senate. They gained more Governorships this past election also, now totaling 33 to the Dems 17. Republicans cut the Democraps and Odummys wasteful spending 2 years in a row, and looking to make it 3. The writings on the wall. Even if Hillary won, Republicans still be the big winners. Trump wins 2nd term in ’20. Want some poke with that whine?
You guys aren’t even discussing the same thing.
Not in Hawaii which is why I’m glad I live in this blue state.
Sure Allie , why don’t you tell us about it and we can do something to correct it. LOL !
Allie, you should get together with Klastri. You’ll have a great relationship.
Changing the current electoral voting process to a “popular” process will enable just a few cities instead of all 50 states decide who our POTUS will be every 4 years. Making that change could be disastrous for all parties in the future by allowing the most populated state deciding what’s right for the whole country. I think both Trump & Sanders should back paddle away from that thought ASAP.
Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s give those people who live in those cities just 3/5 of a vote!
Or, how about we do a Robert A. Heinlein and grant the right to vote only to veterans? Or maybe go one better and allow the franchise to only to those vets who qualify for the equivalent of the U.S. Army Combat Infantryman Badge? With all the wars this country engages in, not a few people could see some justice in that.
You are close , but somehow it should be folks that have a little skin in the game rather than moochers.
But if the Progressives would restrict the voting to citizens I’d be happy.
You are correct, Latenightroach. Unfortunately, the majority of uninformed voters do not understand that, the majority of uninformed being D-crats.
What you wrote, obviously, isn’t true. The more education a person has, the more likely that person is to be a Democrat.
Facts are very stubborn.
You wish . If it were only smart and actually educated folks that know teal history there would no longer be a Democrat Party.
But just for kicks , show me your sources on those stubborn facts. You are the one who calls yourself a lawyer.
Academia in this country being liberal, it would make sense that the longer one is subjected to it, the more likely one would adopt a liberal outlook. Not going to call it brainwashing. “Indoctrination” is more like it. Education, intelligence, common sense are not the same. Even a Rhodes Scholar can be outsmarted by an intern now and then.
calentura – People who made poor choices and didn’t get a quality education are the ones who mock folks who worked hard, made good choices, and did get good educations. This is a common thread here for folks who are poorly educated. Universities teach people how to think critically. Those who think otherwise need to look inward at their jealousy and envy. And their poor choices.
It’s not indoctrination. It’s called learning.
Very misleading. Coming out of college most students are brainwashed. Give them a few years of work experience, then survey their preference. Democrats went from full control 8 years ago, to now losing both houses in Congress and the Presidency, along with hundreds of State positions. It has been a disaster for Democrats.
Was it not Winston Churchill who said something to the effect that “If you aren’t a liberal when you’re young, then you have no heart. But if you aren’t a conservative when you’re older, then you have no brain.”?
…wait, what did Grubber said about the obmacare, it was sold on the stupidity of the American electorate and which side voted for the monster of a social program?
klastri. The “mocking” seems to go both ways. You, for instance, claiming to be highly educated, constantly put down anyone who disagrees with you. The critical thinking learned in college (I have an advanced degree, by the way) does not grant license to be arrogant and condescending. Envy and jealousy? Wow, who do you think you are?
Yes that’s true because the longer you are subjected to re-education in the public university setting the more liberal you become.
I am not really all that conservative but I think the stance most university systems take is far off base. BTW, I did not vote for either of the major parties. Libertarian all day every day.
It’s a “disaster” to let most of the people decide who wins in a democracy? Interesting. Is is possible that you’re worried about non-white people deciding the election?
Follow this train of thought:
Divide the total U.S. population (about 319 million) by 538 electoral college votes, each electoral college vote should equal about 593K people.
Then, take most populated state—California—and divide its 39.1 million population by 593K, the state should get sixty-six electoral college votes. Under the Electoral College system, however, the state only gets fifty-five electoral college votes.
That’s a difference of eleven electoral college votes—more than all the electoral college votes of the vaunted swing states of Iowa (six) and New Hampshire (four).
It also happens that California has our nation’s largest minority population, with about 24 million people, or 61.5 percent of the state’s population.
Meanwhile, if we look at one of our nation’s least populated states—North Dakota—and divide its 757K population by 593K, the state should get about one electoral vote. However, under the Electoral College system, it gets three votes.
It also happens that North Dakota has the lowest minority population in the country—less than ten thousand.
That means in North Dakota a voter—who is most likely to be white—has three times more say in who gets to become President. And it means that a California voter—who is most likely to be not white—has a vote that is worth only about 83 percent as the rest of the country.
In fact, if we look at the ten states with the highest minority populations and compare them to the states with the ten with the lowest minority populations, the results are just as glaringly unfair.
If millions voted illegally, then Mr. Trump should support the recount. We may be able to weed out the “illegals”. He claimed the election was rigged, now he needs to go and prove it…with a recount.
That’s what I was thinking; if people were voting illegally, he makes a good case for why there should be a recount.
Yes, you are correct.
Do we want a person who’s so bad at logic, says any random thing to distract from his faults, running this once-great country?
Let’s have a recount and remove any doubt once and for all? Everyone who believes in fairness should agree to this.
Keko? “Everyone here who believes in Fairness should agree to this”.
Huh? say what?
…surely you jest! I don’t know what bubble you reside in,when it comes to the Democrats,there is NOTHING fair about them. This effort is merely to maintain Control and POWER! They ALL have One BIG Problem with President Trump’s upcoming policies,one specifically in mind is called ….. “Term Limits”! Drain The Swamp!
You not even having the same discussion with everyone else on this thread.
“Drain the swamp.” Yet another Trump campaign slogan he never had any intention of following through on.
Trump voters: He’s already backtracked (forgotten) every major promise he made. You should demand he deliver or step down. He’s not going to deliver, so…..
You expect a newly elected president to execute all of his campaign promises in less than 4 weeks on the job? Really monkey? You just shot down Klastris point that “the more educated…are to be Democrat”. “What YOU wrote obviously true” klastri. “Facts ARE very stubborn”. What a laugh you “educated” ones are. Trump wins 2 terms, get over it losers.
And just how in this pervasive atmosphere of distrust will we ever be satisfied the results of a recount are honest? And the recount of a recount?
It’s almost like maintaining “It’s turtles all the way down.”
Sturgill Simpson. Yes when will it stop? It will only stop when one side crosses the aisle and decides that UNITY is what is best for America. The more crap the Trump side keeps saying to the Clinton side which causes the Clinton side to talk crap about the Trump side the farther apart we become and so on and so on. That is the real problem with this election, it shows the ugliness of America.
Simply recounting ballots does not in any way determine if any were cast by illegals. A through investigation would be needed to determine that.
Yes you are correct but does anyone actually think that an illegal would vote for Trump? It sounds like illegals would only vote for Clinton, what would happen if they found illegal votes for Trump?
Totally agree. In fact we should count all the votes again and make sure they were all alive and legal.
I agree with you WATERMAN2, we should have a recount to show the fraud and illegals that voted for Clinton. America thanks you in coming to an agreement with the Clinton supporters that want the recount, and like mentioned before this will prove that Trump is the winner of both the Electoral and Popular vote. #MAGA
November 8, 2016
TRUMP WON!
Crooked Nasty hiLIARy LOST!
January 20, 2017
Tyranny ENDS
#MAGA BEGINS
If you feel sorry fi Maga Dog
Him turn around bite you;
An’ if you jump out de fryin’ pan
I know you jump in de fiyah’, yeah!
— Peter Tosh, “Maga Dog”
Proof too much koolade can turn one into a nut.
……Theoretically Speaking:IF President Elect Trumps proves that there were indeed,millions of Fraudulent or Illegal votes.(Who Voted Democrat)Does this mean that he ,not only gets the Electoral Votes,but also Wins the Popular votes as well?
If this actually happens?
Man !Truly this would be an “Unprecedented Landslide” Win in Republican History! I can hear The LSM going Bonkers on this one!….Democrats beware? Be careful what you wish for.
MoiLee…IMHO based on how some of the libs here were boasting/chirping about…”it’s gonna be a hiLIARy LANDSLIDE”…and how it turned out…TRUMP 306 vs Nasty’s 232 …it was HUGE alright… BIGGEST LANDSLIDE UPSET VICTORY of ANYTHING in American history!!!
#MAGA
Losing the popular vote by 2.2+ million and failing to reach 47% is not a landslide. It is the biggest popular vote loss in American history by the winner of the Electoral College.
Go Moi moi with keoni.
How was the crow?
We made it into crow relish. You know, like pickle relish, but instead this was made with kim chi and crow.
Cause bumbye da 2018 midterms us guys goin serve you like you oughta always be served — with relish.
ok
yawn
zzz
hanabata….how was the crow?
None of the libs here answered my question since last Thursday …”how was the crow?”
Maybe that’s because you continue to write like an eight year old.
But you did get an answer about how the crow tasted from HanabataDays and you shutdown with some weak a**, “ok yawn zzz” comment. You reminded me of all that stuff that Trump talks but when he went to Mexico he was crickets and when he went to meet Obama he was crickets.
But you did get an answer about how the crow tasted from HanabataDays and you shutdown with some weak, “ok yawn zzz” comment. You reminded me of all that stuff that Trump talks but when he went to Mexico he was crickets and when he went to meet Obama he was crickets.
So you are in favor of the recount then? Your comment points out the benefit to Trump and more importantly the American people with this recount, it would unite everyone behind Trump as the undisputed winner in both the Electoral and Popular vote and everyone can move on. This would be something that everyone here can agree on then, thank you for your reasoning and bringing both sides together on something, finally. #MAGA
Instead of low profiling, this egotistic “winnah” is tweeting out. Lol. So much anger against the 1%ers.
The mere fact that some states have similar recount rules, while others don’t, is prima facie evidence that this is a states’ rights matter. States’ rights — a bedrock issue dear to the hearts of the old-school GOP, the post-Teahatter GOP, the alt-right and even the libertarians!
And Trump argues the recount is nonsense and shouldn’t be allowed to proceed. Ha ha. Stop the world — His Trumpesty has to take a leak.
Sorry, Donnie, these citizens merely followed the laws in their states to request and be granted recounts. They collected the money and are funding these recounts as best they can. And all your purported billion$$$ can’t overturn those recount requests.
We’re quite capable of judging who’s the “crybaby” in this scenario.
and in the end #MAGA
Soi, how was the crow?
Trump is proving to be the crybaby. Its fine before to call the election rigged, but when he wins, shift, oh everything is on the up and up. Then independents who have a right to ask, ask for a recount and now that is rigged! There is no crow to eat, because time will show who tRUMP really is. If this was not the good old USA we could not even have this right to express our opinion. We will see if tRUMP lets us keep these rights
The Independents have a right to ask for a recount but the Independents might be the ones at fault. If they hadn’t entered the election maybe their supporters would have gravitated to THEIR lesser of two evils Clinton and they wouldn’t feel the need to SAVE the country from Trump or maybe they would have went with Trump and he would have gotten the popular vote too.
But, you guys the ones crying hanaz. All day crying. Looks like going be 8 years of crying.
Trump is creating a new cabinet position – Minister of BS: the AP is in line for the position.
You mean the SA . It would be cool to have a ministry of BS tho , talk about draining the swamp !
The guy reminds me of Bagdad Bob for some reason.
Even though a recount will probably not make a difference, this is just another day that LessPark yearns for the good ole dictatorship of North Korea where there is no democratic process or human rights, especially when the process and right conflict with what his opinion wants. It’s ok Less, your mommy makes you clean your room and sleep at 10 every night but this country still gives you the right to act like a big shot here.
Three million aliens voted? Is anybody concerned that Trump believes stories he finds on fake-news sites? It’s pathetic that he tweets this nonsense, but it’s frightening that as President he will make critical decisions based on fake-news that has no connection to reality. When asked why Trump has turned spurned the daily intelligence briefings that all previous President-elects have received, Conway said that he’s getting his briefings from other sources. Really? What are those sources? Alex Jones? Breitbart? Daily Stormer?
You are fighting the wrong fight here. The fight should be why doesn’t he want to prove his statement of illegal voting and weed out those aliens by having a recount. Does he know for a fact that some aliens might have voted for him in the election.
This makes no sense. Trump says that there was massive voter fraud and, illogically, hes opposed to a recount and vote audit. What’s he afraid of?
3 million illegal voters? Washington Post says, “This is a bogus claim with no documented proof. Our colleagues at Snopes.com and PundiFact have already examined this claim, back when it was hot in the right-wing blogosphere, not a statement made by a future U.S. president. The whole thing started with a few tweets by Gregg Phillips, a self-described conservative voter fraud specialist.”
It would be nice to know how many illegals voted in CA. Good luck trying to get an honest number.Open borders have had a terrible negative impact on the average citizen, especially minorities who have seen the jobs disappear and the wages reduced.
Trump can’t produce evidence that a single “illegal” voted. If Clinton’s lead in the popular vote reaches 3 million, Trump will claim that there were 4 million illegal voters.
He couldn’t be presidential and let it go. Why is he so upset? He won, right? After his nice (fake) speech for Thanksgiving DT defaults to his natural tendency to lash out at anyone who questions his ascension to the throne and starts back at making unsubstantiated, fact-less claims. He reminds me of the Filipino guy running that country only richer. It’s going to be an interesting four years. I think I’ll consider it a four year mulligan for the U.S. Quite comical already.
Someone. Anyone. Please take away his Twitter account.
This is pathological behavior — telling lies when you know you’ll get caught but you can’t help yourself and do it anyway. But it’s to be expected from someone who promised to make Alex Jones proud, the Alex Jones who claims that 9/11 and Sandy Hook were false flag operations conducted by the US government.
“Pathological behavior”? You should know, all you do is lie bs. Whine all you like, 8 years of Trump to come.
If he says he won, what’s the problem?
THIS MOTHER F*****G SOB WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING … HELL HE EVEN SAID BEFORE THE ELECTIONS SOMETHING ABOUT NOT TAKING A LOSS … HOW THE HELL DOES HE WANT THIS COUNTRY TO HEAL W/ HIS IGNORANT COMMENTS … ALL YOU DUMB S**TS WHO VOTED FOR HIM ARE IN FOR A ROUGH 4 YEARS …
Trump is hoping for a BONER! LOL!! He is crying UNCLE so he won’t have to do the job he has snared himself into…..what a freak of nature. DUMP THE TRUMP!
It’s undignified and unpresidential to criticize the U.S. election process,especially with absolutely no evidence. And then to make up stories about winning the popular vote! What are we living in–a third world country?
Ah, a rare sensible and sane comment. Thank you.