President Trump is claiming he — along with former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte — lost New Hampshire in the 2016 election due to thousands of illegal voters, according to a report.
During a closed-door meeting with 10 senators Thursday about Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, one participant said the president brought up the election. Ayotte was present at the meeting too, now serving as Trump’s liaison to Congress on Gorsuch.
Trump made the claim he and Ayotte, who lost her re-election bid, would have beaten their opponents in New Hampshire were it not for “thousands” of illegal voters people who were “brought in on buses” from Massachusetts, according to Politico.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump lost New Hampshire’s four electoral votes to Hillary Clinton by just under 3,000 votes. Ayotte was defeated by Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan by a scant 743 votes.
Trump has repeatedly stated he believes millions of illegal immigrants voted in the election, costing him the popular vote. Voters gave Clinton a 2.8 million-vote advantage, but Trump won the election with 306 electoral votes, while Clinton received 227 votes.
Despite Trump’s repeated assertions of mass voter fraud, there isn’t much in the way of evidence to back those claims, even after recount efforts by the Green Party’s Jill Stein in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. After the president called for a “major investigation” into illegals vote last month, House Speaker Paul Ryan said there is “no evidence” of voter fraud.
