Trump's 'Voter-Fraud' Investigation Targets States That Opposed Him

[Truth_hurts]

The White House says an inquiry into baseless claims of illegal voting will spare states that voted for the president.

 

During his sole press conference as president-elect, on January 11, Donald Trump seemed to promise more favorable treatment for states that had voted for him in the election. “We focused very hard in those states and they really reciprocated,†he said. “And those states are gonna have a lot of jobs and they’re gonna have a lot of security. They’re going to have a lot of good news for their veterans.â€

 

Already, on day 5 of his administration, there are signs of just how red and blue states—and more broadly, areas that voted for Trump as opposed to those that did not—might receive disparate treatment from the federal government.

 

During Wednesday’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked about Trump’s false claim that millions of fraudulent votes cost him a victory in the popular vote. After that lie was ridiculed Tuesday, Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning that he would order a “major investigation†into voter fraud. But the claim is not just unsupported by any evidence—it was contradicted by his own campaign lawyers, who argued there was no evidence of fraud when Green Party nominee Jill Stein sued for a recount in some states. Why should anyone believe him now?

 

Spicer’s answer was stunning.

 

“There’s a lot of states that we didn’t compete in where that’s not necessarily the case,†he said. You look at California and New York, I’m not sure that those statements were—we didn’t look at those two states in particular … I think when you look at where a lot of places where a lot of these issues could have occurred in bigger states, that’s where I think we’re going to look.â€

 

Here’s a shorter way to put that: Spicer is saying that Trump will target only states that voted Democratic for his investigation of fraud.

 

As my colleague Emma Green laid out yesterday in detail, there’s simply no basis for the claim of massive fraud. Activists who push the claim like to say that the absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, but repeated investigations, over the course of years, have failed to produce any proof. When the George W. Bush administration spent five years looking for fraud in the 2000s, they came back with effectively nothing. This makes progressives look at warnings about voter fraud as just a pretext for voter suppression: Once the public is made to believe there’s widespread fraud, it will support strict voting laws that require photo ID to vote, restrict early voting, and more. Those laws happen to disproportionately affect minorities, students, the poor, and other demographics that vote overwhelmingly Democratic.

 

Hearing Spicer say in a press briefing that an executive branch investigation would target only blue states offers some validation for the fear that talk of “voter fraud†is simply an excuse to suppress Democratic votes. It ought to go without saying that the idea that voter fraud is occurring only in Democratic states, or only among Democrats, is illogical. (In December, The Washington Post reported that there were only four prosecutions for voter fraud nationwide related to the general election. Three were of Republicans or Trump voters, while a fourth was of a poll worker.)

 

To be sure, no one knows what parts of a Trump administration statement to take literally. On Tuesday, when Trump’s lies about voter fraud came up, NPR’s Mara Liasson incredulously quizzed Spicer on why, if the president believed in such fraud, he hadn’t ordered an investigation. Spicer deflected: “Maybe we will.†Lo and behold, Trump then made policy via tweet a few hours later. When everything is this fluid, one never knows for sure what’s bluster and what’s real.

 

Read more here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trumps-punitive-voter-fraud-investigation/514424/

 

 

He should investigate all the states not just the Democratic states.

[Rohan Kishibe]

This is literally the signs of the beginning of an elected dictatorship.

[Cheshire Cat]

lol is he serious omfg

[sickwithsin]

This is literally the signs of the beginning of an elected dictatorship.

 

I would not be surprised if Donald harbors secret dreams of being president for life.

[nsfwwww]

lol

[Going Crazy]

Lmao

[jennaayy]

lmfao 

[25%Cotton]

"i'm investigating it but only as far as it helps me"

 

wasting time and money while embarrassing himself and his administration and he's not even doing it right.

[babybaekribs]

Everyone hates you Donald. Get over it. You lost the popular vote because more than half of America thinks your a joke.

[♥SNS-Shinomiya♥]

Well folks wanted to recount the states that were the deciding factor for his electoral votes, so its a childish tick for tack. I do think he has bigger things to worry about; this could be done maybe year 2 or 3 not 1.

[mirurun]

[*lesigh*]

This is literally the signs of the beginning of an elected dictatorship.

 

We can't become a dictatorship, the Constitution wouldn't allow it.

[A Hamster Named Loneliness]

California has voted democratic for several elections now, there's no fucking way that it would become red. And he can try to investigate voter fraud in every county in California but the fact is, voter fraud is impossible to do/can't be done in my county. A man from my county tried that and is now facing possible jail time or a huge fine for falsifying his voter registration just for testing to see if voter fraud was possible (if you don't want to click the link, basically he was able to create a fake voter registration using a fake name and fake DL but found out that first time voters in this county are required to show a valid ID when they show up at the polls and his fake DL was also flagged, so he wouldn't have been able to vote with the fake ID.)

[maryan]

Lol he said in his interview with ABC that voter fraud occurs among only those against him, that such people wouldn't vote for him. So it's no surprise he will only be coming after the blue states.

 

It's funny he thinks he had any chance in California. Our state despises Trump greatly and will probably be "the Texas" of the Trump era with how much we plan to resist. 

[flowerlover]

The next four years is truly going to be entertaining and hilarious.