A member of the Federal Election Commission is calling on President Trump to share any evidence he may possess of voter fraud during the 2016 election after it was reported that Trump blamed illegal votes for costing him and a Republican senator a victory in New Hampshire.
“According to widespread news reports circulating today, President Trump has alleged an astonishing voter-fraud scheme that he claims denied him and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte victory in the state of New Hampshire in the 2016 elections. The scheme the President of the United States alleges would constitute thousands of felony criminal offenses under New Hampshire law,” read a statement Friday from FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub.
“As a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, I am acutely aware that our democracy rests on the faith of the American people in the integrity of their elections,” Weintraub continued. “The President has issued an extraordinarily serious and specific charge. Allegations of this magnitude cannot be ignored. I therefore call upon President Trump to immediately share his evidence with the public and with the appropriate law-enforcement authorities so that his allegations may be investigated promptly and thoroughly.”
Trump held a closed-door meeting with 10 senators Thursday about Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte was present at the meeting too, now serving as Trump’s liaison to Congress on Gorsuch.
A participant said that the president brought up the election, according to Politico, claiming he and former 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.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on the report.
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.
Still, Trump said during an interview broadcast last weekend that he would put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of a commission to examine possible voter fraud during November’s election “very, very carefully.”
