A spokesman for President-elect Trump’s transition team accused reporters Monday of ignoring instances of voter fraud while covering a “frivolous” recount effort led by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
“Obviously, I do think that it’s an issue of concern, the fact that there’s a concern that so many have voted that are not legally supposed to,” spokesman Jason Miller said in conference call with reporters. He encouraged the press to examine voter fraud data “as opposed to just chasing the shiny object of the Jill Stein recount effort.”
“Anyone who looks at that on face value just sees how nonsensical it is,” Miller said of the recount.
Trump took to social media over the weekend to say he would have “won the popular vote” if officials would “deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
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
There have been no reports of widespread voter fraud in the nearly three weeks since Trump won the presidential race with a convincing Electoral College victory, although he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
Last week, Clinton’s campaign joined the Stein-funded recount effort in Wisconsin and pledged to participate in two other potential recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Clinton’s attorney said the team had not uncovered any “actionable evidence of hacking” or fraud.
Trump has derided the recount effort as “ridiculous.”
“This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing,” Trump said in a statement on Saturday.
Miller cited a Pew Research study on Monday in support of Trump’s weekend tirade against the media for ignoring alleged voter fraud in several key states.
That study found one in eight voter registrations was “no longer valid” or was “significantly inaccurate.” Miller also pointed to a 2014 article in the Washington Post that questioned whether votes cast illegally by non-citizens could tip the midterm election.
Trump, the projected winner of Wisconsin, presently leads Clinton by roughly 1 percentage point in the state’s vote tally.
