Donald Trump’s transition spokesman on Monday deflected questions about the President-elect’s false claims that “millions” of undocumented voters cost him the popular vote, instead criticizing the media’s coverage of recount efforts.
On a call with reporters, NPR’s Tamara Keith asked Jason Miller to provide evidence for Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that he lost the popular vote due to massive noncitizen voter fraud. Miller did not address Trump’s specific allegations, pivoting to attack the recount effort that Stein is pushing in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“I really do think that it’s been ridiculous that so much oxygen has been given to the recount effort where there’s absolutely no chance of any election results changing,” he said. “This election has been decided.”
Miller argued “other concerns” about the election are equally worthy of media coverage.
“In particular I’d point to the 2014 Washington Post study that indicated that more than 14 percent of noncitizens in both the 2008 and 2010 elections have indicated they were registered to vote,” he said. “If this much attention and oxygen is going to be given to a completely frivolous throwaway fundraising scheme by someone like Jill Stein, then there should be actual substantive looks at the overall examples of voter fraud and illegal immigrants voting in recent years.”
The Washington Post story that Miller referenced actually was an op-ed that put forth the flimsy theory that President Barack Obama only won North Carolina in 2008 due to voter fraud. The op-ed based its conclusions on speculative data, rather than any reports from the election itself, and was subsequently rebutted by three separate pieces published in the same newspaper. Its findings were further questioned by a peer-reviewed article.
None of that stopped Trump from airing the op-ed’s dubious findings on the campaign trail in October, when he used its conclusions to attack “Republican leaders” and shore up his claims that the election would somehow be rigged against him.
