President Donald Trump reportedly brought up even more baseless claims of voter fraud on Thursday, during a closed-door meeting with several senators.
Politico first reported on Trump’s comments Friday, citing unnamed participants in a meeting between Trump and 10 senators originally meant discuss Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Present at the meeting was former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who has handled Gorsuch’s confirmation process for the White House.
Ayotte narrowly lost a re-election bid in the Granite State in November. According to Politico, she lost her race against now-Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) by 743 votes, while Hillary Clinton won the state by nearly 3,000 votes.
Both outcomes, Trump reportedly said, were due to “thousands” of people who were “brought in on buses” from Massachusetts to vote “illegally” in the state.
Politico cited one participant at the meeting who said “an uncomfortable silence” followed that assertion.
Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote to Clinton. He recently announced that Vice President Mike Pence would lead a commission to investigate voter fraud, though it’s still unclear if the commission is actually being formed.
