Despite becoming the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump is still talking about the election being rigged. Trump won the Electoral College over Hillary Clinton; he finished with 306 to his opponent’s 232.
However, because large states like California and New York turned out heavily for Clinton, she has an unprecedented lead in the popular vote. The former secretary of state has surpassed the business mogul by more than 2 million votes.
It is a well-known fact that Trump loves to be popular – and on Sunday, via Twitter, he decided to fabricate a reason why he lost so many voters. Mr. Trump is not only upset that he lost the popular vote, but he is also angry for the recall initiated by Green Party leader Jill Stein.
During the Thanksgiving holiday, Stein was able to take in over 4 million dollars in donations in less than 24 hours – that is more than she has ever raised while campaigning.
The funds will go to recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan – members of Clinton’s campaign have confirmed that they will assist with the recall to make sure it goes smoothly. Trump tweeted the following message:
“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
The tweet has gone viral, and many experts see it as outrageous because Trump himself has no evidence to support his statement. While there is one far-right website pushing the faux reports that millions of illegals partook in the election, pollsters, lawyers, reporters, and professors have stepped out to say that data has shown that there was no widespread fraud in the 2016 vote.
“There’s no reason to believe this is true,” said Rick Hasen, a professor specializing in election law at the University of California, Irvine. “The level of fraud in US elections is quite low,” he shared.
After being called out by countless media outlets for making the false claims, Trump returned to Twitter to defend himself with a series of bombastic tweets. He said:
It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4–
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
states instead of the 15 states that I visited. I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
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
On December 19, many are fighting to make sure that the electors cast their votes for Clinton.
