Obama Takes Down Trump’s Claim Of Rigged Election: ‘That’s Ridiculous’

President Barack Obama answers a question during a news conference after attending a National Security Council Meeting on efforts to counter the Islamic State, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, at the Pentagon in Washington. (... President Barack Obama answers a question during a news conference after attending a National Security Council Meeting on efforts to counter the Islamic State, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Donald Trump has begun warning that the November election will be “rigged” as his numbers collapses in national polls.

President Barack Obama said Thursday during a press conference that Trump doesn’t know what he is talking about.

“What does that mean?” Obama said. “The federal government doesn’t run the election process. States and cities and communities all across the country, they are the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths. And if Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated, across the country, included in places like Texas, where typically it’s not Democrats who are in charge of voting booths, that’s ridiculous.”

Obama did say that he took cyber attacks on America’s voting system and any attempt to intervene in the voting process seriously, but that assuming an election is going to be “rigged” is wrong.

“If we see signs that a voting machine or a system is vulnerable it hacking, then we inform those local authority who are running the elections that they need to be careful. If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws, in terms of equal access and aren’t providing ramps for disabled voters, or are discriminating in some fashion or are otherwise violating civil rights laws, then the Justice Department will come in and take care of that,” Obama said. “But this will be an election like every other election. And I think all of us at some points in our lives have played sports or maybe just played in a school yard or sand box and sometimes folks if they lose, they complain they got cheated. “

Trump claimed earlier this week that voter fraud could be rampant in the November election even though repeated studies have shown it to be extremely rare.

“If the election is rigged, I would not be surprised,” he told The Washington Post in an interview Tuesday. “The voter ID situation has turned out to be a very unfair development. We may have people vote 10 times.”

Obama said that he has actually never “heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over. Or before the score is even tallied.”

“You know, go out there and try to win the election,” Obama said. “If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions. That doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Yes Sir, Mr. President.

    Quash that BS ASAP.

  2. FOX: He is a liar. Every FOX poll showed Romney winning in a landslide. How did Obama manage to win? Voter Fraud.
    Megyn Kelly: Ohio is still being counted.

  3. Not just Trump, I’m getting some Facebook messages along the same lines from Bernie supporters. All rigged; he was cheated. Sore, really sore, losers…

  4. Sad such a brilliant mind has to be pestered by gnats…

  5. Avatar for bkmn bkmn says:

    Let’s talk about what’s going on here. Trump is running to make money for himself. PERIOD.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

90 more replies

Participants

Avatar for playitagainrowlf Avatar for ajaykalra Avatar for jaxxson Avatar for charliee Avatar for bikerdad Avatar for djnoll Avatar for dswx Avatar for losamigos Avatar for juanboliche Avatar for kunda311 Avatar for mantan Avatar for sniffit Avatar for lastroth Avatar for theotherjim Avatar for pshah Avatar for tena Avatar for antisachetdethe Avatar for edhedh Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for capital2 Avatar for irishbark Avatar for grack Avatar for maximus Avatar for lilyinindy

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: