President-Elect Donald Trump spent Sunday reverting to an old campaign pastime of his: sending out angry tweets accusing others of treating him unfairly. The subject this time was alleged voter fraud and the election recount effort led by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. As NBC News reports, Trump’s claims have absolutely no evidence to support them thus far.
Trump claims that millions of people voted illegally on Nov. 8, tweeting, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Hillary Clinton currently leads in the popular vote by 2 million votes.
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
Hours later, Trump put forth more accusations on Twitter, accusing Virginia, New Hampshire, and California of having voter fraud, again, without any proof. Trump also accuses “the media” of being biased and deliberately not reporting on his baseless accusations. The Los Angeles Times reported that concerns people have with voter fraud in California really don’t stand up to scrutiny.
In response, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla released a statement on his own Twitter account, saying, “It appears that Mr. Trump is troubled by the fact that a growing majority of Americans did not vote for him. His unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in California and elsewhere are absurd. His reckless tweets are inappropriate and unbecoming of a President-elect.”
— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) November 28, 2016
Trump also claimed that he would have won the election “even more easily and convincingly” if he had campaigned with the goal of winning the popular vote, saying that he would have only needed to visit a few states.
Despite his victory in the Electoral College, Trump has shown himself to be an opponent of the system in the past, tweeting in 2012, “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.”
Included in Trump’s tweetstorm was criticism of former opponent Hillary Clinton and her campaign’s decision to support Stein’s recount effort. Trump quotes Clinton’s appalled response to his own assertion that he would not necessarily accept the results of the election, calling her hypocritical for also seemingly refusing to accept the results of the election, despite officially conceding it.
Stein announced her intent to file for a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania before the filing deadlines, and over the weekend expanded her efforts include all states where the deadline has not already passed. Since the announcement, Stein’s online fundraising campaign has raised over $6 million.
I will do a recount in any state where the deadline has not passed. Help my staff find state deadlines: https://t.co/VsruD0r8FR #Recount2016
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) November 26, 2016
Senior officials from the Trump transition team, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway, have criticized the recount effort as “a total and complete hypocritical joke,” according to Priebus.
NBC News also speculates that this onslaught of tweets may be an attempt by the incoming Trump administration to distract from a New York Times investigation into Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.