CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord hopped on Donald Trump’s “rigged election” train Wednesday, claiming that just because he “pushes the button” to vote for Trump doesn’t necessarily mean that his vote will be counted that way.
Following Ivanka Trump’s comments that she thinks her father will accept the election result, no matter the outcome, Lord told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that whether Trump will fight the results depends on how close the race is on Election Day.
“It depends how close,” the Trump surrogate said. “I had the opportunity to meet Richard Nixon when he was long since a former president. He went to his grave thinking he won the 1960 election and was cheated out of it so it depends on how close we are and whether there would be a fight in terms of results as Al Gore chose to fight George W. Bush in 2000.”
Lord went on to say that as a Pennsylvanian, he is concerned about claims there’s been evidence of voter fraud in that state in the past. Baldwin disputed that claim.
“I don’t doubt there are certain instances. But in terms of widespread voter fraud, that’s just not true,” Baldwin said.
“Well, it certainly has been true in places in Pennsylvania,” Lord said. “I mean, that’s — depending on the race and all of that kind of thing. It’s something we have to be concerned about. Just off the top of my head, now that a lot of us are doing electronic voting, just because I touch the button that says Donald Trump doesn’t mean it registered for Donald Trump.”
There has never been any evidence of the kind of direct electronic voting machine interference Lord hinted at.
Yet when Angela Rye, the director of the Congressional Black Caucus, pointed out that stringent voter ID laws actually do put hurdles in front of some voters, Lord wasn’t having it.
“It’s making it harder for people to vote who don’t have the money so it’s been equated to a modern day poll tax,” she said. “That should be discussed?”
“No, no,” Lord replied.
