President-elect Trump’s allegation that millions of people voted illegally during the election is “nonsense,” says Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Nonsense like this signals that Republicans will make it harder for people of color, the elderly, immigrants, young and poor people to vote,” Sanders said Monday.
Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that he would have won the popular vote count were it not for the millions of people “who voted illegally.” As it stands, Hillary Clinton leads the popular vote count by 2 million votes even though Trump won more electoral 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
Trump later tweeted that there was “serious voter fraud” in three states that he lost to Hillary Clinton — Virginia, New Hampshire and California — and blamed the media for underreporting the matter. Trump did not provide evidence to substantiate his claim.
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
Sanders went on to blast the incoming Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House of Representatives.
“The threat to American democracy under Republican control is two-fold. First, they will likely move to go beyond the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and end all campaign finance limitations,” Sanders said, referring to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that prohibited restrictions on political contributions made by corporations. “Right now, the Koch brothers and the billionaire class can spend as much as they want only on independent expenditures. The Republican leadership wants more. They want billionaires to be able to contribute directly to the candidate and, in essence, make the candidate a full-fledged employee of wealthy contributors.”
The progressive lawmaker accused Republicans of moving to “aggressively” expand voter suppression, pointing to Trump’s “nonsense” about illegal voters.
“He is sending a very clear signal that the Republicans will move to make it harder for people of color, the elderly, immigrants, young people and poor people to participate in elections,” Sanders said.
It is “our job,” Sanders said, to work at the state and federal level to resist voter suppression.
“We must do everything we can to make it easier for people to participate in the political process, not harder,” Sanders said, adding that states like California and Vermont have passed law this year for automatic voter registration.
“For many Republicans leaders, ‘democracy’ means billionaires buying elections and poor and working people being disenfranchised. Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy. The Republican anti-democratic vision is not a future we will allow to happen,” Sanders said.
