Trump's call for probe of voter fraud sparks backlash

[webfact]

Trump's call for probe of voter fraud sparks backlash

By Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey

REUTERS

 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump votes at PS 59 in New York, New York, U.S. November 8, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/Files

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would seek an investigation into what he believes was voter fraud in the November election, despite overwhelming consensus among state officials, election experts and politicians that it is rare in the United States.

 

The announcement drew rebukes from both Republicans and Democrats who said the Republican president's unsubstantiated claims of large-scale fraud could undermine voting rights efforts as well as confidence in the new U.S. chief executive.

 

In the Nov. 8 election, Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million ballots. Irked by that large figure, he has blamed voter fraud without citing evidence.

 

"I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and....even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)," Trump said on Twitter.

 

"Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!"

 

He did not elaborate beyond his two Twitter posts. White House press secretary Sean Spicer later told a news briefing that the probe would not focus on only the 2016 election.

 

Three Democratic congressmen demanded proof. They sent a letter to election officials and attorneys general in all 50 U.S. states seeking cases of fraud in November's vote.

 

Many of the state officials did not need prompting. Election officers in several states rejected Trump's claims on the spot.

 

"Easy to vote, hard to cheat #Ohio," Ohio's Republican secretary of state, Jon Husted, said in a Twitter post rebutting Trump's claim that 3 million to 5 million illegal immigrants voted against him.

 

"That's impossible," Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla of California said on CNN.

 

There is no history of widespread voter fraud in U.S. elections. Leading Republicans, including the top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, have rejected the claims.

 

Trump won the state-by-state Electoral College tally that decides the presidency. But the historic popular vote gap and allegations of Russian meddling in the election on his behalf have led some to say his victory was not legitimate.

 

NO EVIDENCE

 

Trump's announcement that he will seek an investigation appeared to be prompted by a White House news briefing on Tuesday in which Spicer confirmed that the president continued to believe millions of illegal immigrants voted in the election.

 

Spicer initially said there was no investigation planned but changed tack after persistent questioning, saying "maybe we will ... anything is possible."

 

Federal investigations of voter fraud are rare. A five-year probe initiated by Republican President George W. Bush's administration turned up no evidence of voter fraud and ended in resignations and more investigations for the Department of Justice, which enforces federal voting rights laws.

 

"Republicans have used claims of widespread voter fraud to discriminate and restrict access to the ballot box for years,” said Democratic U.S. Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina.

 

Trump's attorney general nominee, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, has been criticized for his record on voting rights and race relations. A voter fraud case he prosecuted as a U.S. attorney in his home state of Alabama helped derail his confirmation as a federal judge in 1986.

 

Voting rights experts at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice urged Sessions to heed lessons of the past.

 

"In 2007, the Justice Department was upended by scandal because it had pursued a partisan agenda on voting, under the guise of rooting out suspected 'voter fraud,'" Adam Gitlin and Wendy Weiser wrote in a Jan. 7 report for the centre.

 

"DOJ political leadership fired seven well-respected U.S. attorneys, dismissing some top Republican prosecutors because they had refused to prosecute non-existent voter fraud," they wrote.

 

The firings scandal prompted the resignation of the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, they said.

 

Others expressed concern that Trump's repetition of falsehoods, including the size of inauguration crowds as well as voter fraud, could undermine public confidence.

 

U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Trump will need to be believed when he makes the case about a foreign threat and cannot reveal the intelligence behind it.

 

"Our new president is doing deep damage to himself and to our country," Schiff said on Wednesday at the Center for American Progress think tank.

 

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and Warren Strobel; Editing by Bill Trott and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-01-26

[Emster23]

Do we need more evidence to prove Trump is certified delusional nut job? No. But we will get more by the truck load. Or train car load.

[Silurian]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and....even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time),"

 

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! Please, go ahead with the investigation that will prove once and for all what kind of nut job you really are. And when the results show no (or next to none) voter fraud will you accept the results or just spout more mouth garbage about how the investigation was tainted? And maybe it will also shut up all those supporters who really believe there was massive voter fraud. I welcome this investigation. DO IT!

 

[Carib]

Silly man, he just wants to proof he should have won the popular vote too, after all he is popular..so he says. 

[kamahele]

I'm not a doctor but one wonders if he has some kind of mental disorder. He won. Doesn't matter if he didn't win the popular vote except that it gives those of us who didn't vote for him something to complain about. You're the president for God's sake. Now act like one.

[mikebike]

12 minutes ago, Silurian said:

 

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! Please, go ahead with the investigation that will prove once and for all what kind of nut job you really are. And when the results show no (or next to none) voter fraud will you accept the results or just spout more mouth garbage about how the investigation was tainted? And maybe it will also shut up all those supporters who really believe there was massive voter fraud. I welcome this investigation. DO IT!

 

Unfortunately there are deeper thinkers than the Donald amongst his advisors. The "investigation" will be carried out by someone already pre-biased (note cabinet picks) to agree with the premise that there was voter fraud and they will use this to justify partisan "adjustments" of voting laws. There is a long play at work here to manipulate not just the surface talking point of the D's sensitivity to perceived slights.

 

It will NOT induce the D or any one in his cadre to accept reality.

[pitrevie]

27 minutes ago, Silurian said:

 

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! Please, go ahead with the investigation that will prove once and for all what kind of nut job you really are. And when the results show no (or next to none) voter fraud will you accept the results or just spout more mouth garbage about how the investigation was tainted? And maybe it will also shut up all those supporters who really believe there was massive voter fraud. I welcome this investigation. DO IT!

 

It will not make any difference, if and when they conclude that there was little or no voter fraud he will still not accept the result and neither will his supporters. Look at the nonsense over the birther issue and Trump kept telling us that people had been to see him and revealed the most amazing information. Twenty million dollars and 7 Benghazi inquires and each time the same answer. Thank god Hilary wasn't elected or we would now be on No 8. We live in an alternative fact world as far as the whole of the GOP is concerned not just Trump.

[Thakkar]

They only need to find a few instances of, not fraud, just irregularities, and that will be blown all out of proportion and used as reason for what they really want to do: accelerate the already on-going Republican voter suppression efforts.

 

oh, look, there are three instances of irregularities already:

Trump's Right hand man Bannon, his daughter Tiffany and his Cabinet pick Mnuchin are each registered to vote in two states.

 

( http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/kfile-mnuchin-voter-registration/index.html , http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/pages/ciyd1t8md005sojy69w6c5jmu.html )

 

Rather than agreeing to this this sham investigation, we should ask Trump to supply proof for the basis of his current claim.

 

There is a reason White House is providing no evidence about voter fraud claim – there is no evidence. http://cnn.it/2j1ZMuO

 

 

[Tug]

It really is unbelivable he could spout such nonsense how do his people keep a straight face!this coming from the birther in chief defies belief I guess if you tell a really big lie.........

[Briggsy]

This is voter suppression in disguise.

[ilostmypassword]

Trump’s unfounded voter fraud theory was fueled by German golfer Bernhard Langer

When challenged on that assertion by a Democrat attending the luncheon, Trump relayed a story he said he was told by a friend, “the very famous golfer, Bernhard Langer.” The two-time Masters winner, now a fixture on the PGA’s Champions Tour, had a frustrating experience when trying to vote near his Florida home on Election Day, according to the president.

Langer was told while standing in line that he would not be able to vote, but what Trump did not mention was that Langer is not a U.S. citizen. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/01/25/trumps-unfounded-voter-fraud-theory-was-fueled-by-german-golfer-bernhard-langer/?utm_term=.a10ac69ffd10

[mikebike]

11 minutes ago, Tug said:

It really is unbelivable he could spout such nonsense how do his people keep a straight face!this coming from the birther in chief defies belief I guess if you tell a really big lie.........

...and then progress to delegitimizing the (admitted feeble) fourth estate and promoting "alternative facts" you can, conceivably, do anything you like.

[Thakkar]

7 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Trump’s unfounded voter fraud theory was fueled by German golfer Bernhard Langer

When challenged on that assertion by a Democrat attending the luncheon, Trump relayed a story he said he was told by a friend, “the very famous golfer, Bernhard Langer.” The two-time Masters winner, now a fixture on the PGA’s Champions Tour, had a frustrating experience when trying to vote near his Florida home on Election Day, according to the president.

Langer was told while standing in line that he would not be able to vote, but what Trump did not mention was that Langer is not a U.S. citizen. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/01/25/trumps-unfounded-voter-fraud-theory-was-fueled-by-german-golfer-bernhard-langer/?utm_term=.a10ac69ffd10

What's  Really telling about this story that Trump keeps repeating to anyone who'll listen is that even as he's upset that a white guy (who is not a citizen) wasn't allowed to vote the latinos in the queue are automatically assumed by him to be illegals. 

 

There's your deep-seated Trump racism right there, folks.

 

"I love the Mexicans!"

"Nobody lol vest women like I do!"

 

We are living in opposite world, people.

[Enoon]

So repetitive, but this all one needs to know:

 

 

If that's not a problem for you, then you are the problem.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by Enoon

[Enoon]

 

To paraphrase a recent comment in the press:

 

"Good men do not necessarily make good presidents, but the White House is no place for an amoral man"

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by Enoon

[ilostmypassword]

9 minutes ago, Enoon said:

So repetitive, but this all one needs to know:

 

 

If that's not a problem for you, then you are the problem.

 

 

Like most things that are too good to be true, this isn't. It's a made up quote.

[soalbundy]

He used to depress me as president but now i just find him funny

[mike324]

Whats more worrying is places that limits voting hours or close down voting booths to inconvenience voters on purpose.

[IAMHERE]

38 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

He used to depress me as president but now i just find him funny

What? He has been president less than a week. Depression comes too easily perhaps. Four more years to go, at least.

[IAMHERE]

Good idea for an investigation; just to get ahead of the 2020 election curve where the Democrats will again cheat at the polls.

[ilostmypassword]

8 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

Good idea for an investigation; just to get ahead of the 2020 election curve where the Democrats will again cheat at the polls.

And of course you have evidence for this.  You just don't want to share it with the rest of the world.  Very selfish of you.

[zydeco]

Simple remedy. Voter ID. If you fear Voter ID, then you want to make it possible for illegals to slip through the system and vote. In California, voter registration takes place when a person gets a driver's license. And California is now giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Connect the dots.

[stevenl]

3 minutes ago, zydeco said:

Simple remedy. Voter ID. If you fear Voter ID, then you want to make it possible for illegals to slip through the system and vote. In California, voter registration takes place when a person gets a driver's license. And California is now giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Connect the dots.

Please read, your presumption has been debunked many times already.

 

Ah, forgot, that would mean you can't repeat the same nonsense ad naseum so don't want to do that.

[ilostmypassword]

5 minutes ago, zydeco said:

Simple remedy. Voter ID. If you fear Voter ID, then you want to make it possible for illegals to slip through the system and vote. In California, voter registration takes place when a person gets a driver's license. And California is now giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Connect the dots.

Another fake news junkie.  I've already posted links debunking this nonsense a few times.  No more. Why don't you cite an authoritative source to back up your contention?

[zydeco]

Fake, huh? " According to the Office of the California Secretary of State, "in most cases, California voters are not required to show identification at their polling place." A voter may be asked to provide identification at the polls if it is his or her first time voting (this requirement applies if the individual registered by mail without providing a driver's license number, state identification number, or the last four digits of a Social Security number). Acceptable forms of identification include driver's licenses, utility bills, or any document sent by a government agency. For a complete list of acceptable forms of identification" https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_in_California

[zydeco]

2 hours ago, Briggsy said:

This is voter suppression in disguise.

 

If you want to see real voter suppression in action, look no further than California's "Top-Two Primary," which kept Republicans off the ballot for state and legislative elections. Thus no need to go to the polls on general election day, which also helps explain Clinton's big California majority.

[Redline]

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

He used to depress me as president but now i just find him funny

If he was in Congress he would be funny

[opalred]

he is rite

all the brain dead did vote for him 

[Briggsy]

35 minutes ago, zydeco said:

 

If you want to see real voter suppression in action, look no further than California's "Top-Two Primary," which kept Republicans off the ballot for state and legislative elections. Thus no need to go to the polls on general election day, which also helps explain Clinton's big California majority.

It never ends. Any criticism of Trump or his actions is met with, "But look at Hillary."

[Redline]

37 minutes ago, zydeco said:

 

If you want to see real voter suppression in action, look no further than California's "Top-Two Primary," which kept Republicans off the ballot for state and legislative elections. Thus no need to go to the polls on general election day, which also helps explain Clinton's big California majority.