President Donald Trump called for a “major investigation into voter fraud” Wednesday, although several news outlets reported such an investigation would implicate one of his senior advisers and state election organizations had failed to find proof of the widespread rigging he had repeatedly claimed since the election.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer talks about President Trump's belief in voter fraud during Tuesdays briefing.
Trump had told lawmakers Monday that 3 million to 5 million “illegal” voters had cost him the popular vote, though no state election organizations have found any evidence of such fraud. A group of news outlets that independently monitored the election also found no indication of vote rigging, and PolitiFact gave Trump a “pants on fire” rating for his claim, which he has repeatedly stated since winning the election.
The examples of voter fraud Trump described also had to do with voting registration rather than actual voting: He objected to those registered to vote twice, those registered to vote illegally, or those registered to vote even though they are deceased — situations that are often the result of outdated state voting rolls rather than deliberate deception.
Trump’s own senior adviser Stephen Bannon had an active voter registration in Florida though he cast an absentee ballot in the 2016 election as a voter from New York City, the Miami Herald reported. Bannon was removed from the voter roll in Sarasota County Wednesday.
And Bannon wasn’t the only one: Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin is registered in California and New York, and Trump’s daughter Tiffany was reigstered in Pennsylvania and New York.
Trump also provided more detail on his upcoming Supreme Court nominee announcement, which he said Tuesday would arrive sometime next week: