White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Trump did not intend to delete or correct tweets about mail-in voting and voter fraud that earned him his first fact checks by Twitter.
Trump suggested in a series of tweets this week that Democrats were actively trying to make voter fraud easier by expanding vote-by-mail systems.
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” the president wrote. “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!”
During a press briefing on Thursday, CBS White House correspondent Jonathan Karl told McEnany those statements were false and asked her why the president continues to claim widespread voter fraud exists in America.
“Do you not acknowledge that?” Karl said.
“No, I don’t acknowledge that,” McEnany responded. “So let me address this in detail. … There was a Pew study done that shows there is plenty of reason to believe that … in a mass mail-in system, there is fraud.”
McEnany said the Pew Charitable Trusts study she was referencing showed there were millions of people “who are on voter registrations that have not been maintained.”
The press secretary cited a Fox News story of mail-in ballots “piling up” in states like Nevada “sitting around in trash cans.”
“This is not how we should be protecting U.S. ballots,” she said.
Earlier in the press conference, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta asked why the president should not be subject to scrutiny by social media companies.
“If you’re going to get into the fact-checking business, there’s not one that should be fact-checked more than the mainstream media,” McEnany responded.
Trump, seemingly irate with Twitter over the fact check and other measures he and his supporters say silence conservative voices, plans to sign an executive order Thursday repealing shields in Section 230 that would increase transparency from social media companies regarding how they enforce their rules and guidelines.
McEnany said Twitter was showing “a clear bias” against conservatives and Trump.
