Ellen Weintraub, the Democratic chair of the Federal Election Commission, said Monday “there is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016” and called on President Trump to provide evidence for his currently unsupported claims.
“To be suggesting to people … that if the candidate they choose doesn’t win that it is because of fraud, that undermines our democracy. It undermines people’s faith, and once that faith is broken, it is very hard to build up again,” Ellen Weintraub told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.”
“Facts matter and people of America need to be able to believe what their leaders tell them. It is damaging to our democracy to spread information that … is baseless,” she said.
Ms. Weintraub sent a letter to Mr. Trump asking the president to provide evidence of voter fraud after he claimed it was the reason he lost New Hampshire in the 2016 presidential race, because if it’s real “then really we need to be taking action about that.”
While Ms. Weintraub said Mr. Trump hasn’t responded to her letter, he did continue his claims Sunday during a press gaggle on a New Jersey airstrip.
“Many, many, many people voted that shouldn’t have voted,” he said. “Some people voted many times. What I’m saying is we need voting identification, we need voter ID.”
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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