Days ago, President Donald Trump announced he would be launching a “major” investigation into voter fraud, alleging upwards of 3 million illegal votes cast in November’s election.
I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Phillips, the man behind the “3 million” claim hasn’t released any proof of it, and one journalist who asked for it on Twitter found herself promptly blocked, so take that figure with a grain of salt.Look forward to seeing final results of VoteStand. Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2017
For what it's worth, I got blocked by the random man Trump is now claiming has "proof" of millions of illegal votes — for asking for proof. pic.twitter.com/iAMdEAkpiP
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 27, 2017
Still, it is worth investigating voter fraud to measure the extent of the problem, even if Trump’s estimate is exaggerated. While most liberals are mocking the extent to which Trump believes voter fraud occurred, he is meeting resistance from them in pushing for a recount, which is odd given that you’d expect they’d want him to launch an investigation that proved him wrong.
As CNN reported:
The head of the NAACP warned Thursday that his group will “resist” if President Donald Trump goes forward with his “major investigation” into voter fraud.
“The President has claimed millions of fraudulent ballots were cast. The only place you will find millions of fraudulent ballots are right beside that fake birth certificate for Barack Obama, inside the imagination of President Trump. They don’t exist,” Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”
Brooks said over the course of the past election there has been “unrelenting voter suppression.” “We have seen our rights denied as Americans. Particularly seniors, African-Americans, Latinos and younger people,” Brooks said. “So, if the President insists upon conducting an investigation into voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression, the NAACP, along with millions of Americans of every human heritage, will resist. We will push back.”
Earlier in the day, Brooks tweeted, “Dear #POTUS, I assure you, in the memory of @NAACP martyrs, any exec. order suppressing votes will meet unrelenting #resistance.” “This is a new, old, bad, expensive idea. The definition of fraud, waste and abuse. We don’t need to go down that road. In fact, what he needs to do is strengthen voting rights.”
The NAACP seems worried that at least some voter fraud will be uncovered — enough to justify voter ID laws, which are often wrongly branded as being racist. To that, most people of color the NAACP claims to represent will likely respond with “so what?”
[Note: This post was authored by Matt Palumbo. Follow him on Twitter @MattPalumbo12]
