President-elect Donald Trump made an unsupported claim in a Twitter message on Sunday: “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
Several outlets, including CNN, Time and Politico, were quick to call Trump’s allegation about the 2016 presidential election “false.”
The Washington Post emphasized its own investigation that concluded “there were not widespread reports of voter fraud during the election.”
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
“It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4- states instead of the 15 states that I visited,” Trump also shared on Twitter, adding “I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!”
“So much time and money will be spent – same result!” said Trump on Sunday at the end of a string of tweets arguing against the recount. “Sad,” he added.
Trump called the recount effort a “scam” in a tweet he wrote on Saturday, saying the Green Party is filling up its coffers “by asking for impossible recounts” that “is now being joined by the badly defeated & demoralized Dems.”