Priebus: Voter fraud isn’t ‘some figment of people’s imagination’

“What he’s saying is he wants to reserve all options and if there’s grounds for a recount, ‘I will exercise my options,'” Priebus said of Trump on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I’m trying to put you in the mind of a person who’s running for president and sees this unbelievable world around him and then you do hear about fraud at the ballot box and you say, ‘I’m going to reserve all options,'” he told anchor John Dickerson, adding, “I know where [Trump] is at on this.”

Priebus said the GOP nominee isn’t referring to “millions of people” committing voter fraud when he raises such concerns at his campaign rallies.

“What we’re talking about is if you look at the Milwaukee police report that came out about 6 years ago … the police department put out a 70-page report on election fraud in Milwaukee,” Priebus explained. “This is real, so let’s not go down this road where we’re acting like this is some figment of people’s imagination.”

The party chief accused the media of blowing out of proportion Trump’s comments on accepting the election results. “To ask a candidate three weeks before the election if they lose are they going to concede … no one does that,” he said.

“I think if it’s a close election — look, if you lose by 200 votes in Florida, are you going to concede on election night if you’re at 260 electoral votes?” Priebus told Dickerson, raising an example of what Trump might be concerned about.

“[Trump] is not willing to not concede if he loses and there’s no fraud,” he said. “Losing by 100 votes is one thing, losing by 100,000 votes is different thing.”

Trump was accused by Republicans and Democrats alike of undermining the democratic process after he refused to pledge to accept the results of the upcoming election during last week’s presidential debate.

The billionaire later told his supporters that he would “totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win.”