President Donald Trump says he will call for a “major investigation” into voter fraud, including registered and illegal immigrants, in order to strengthen voting procedures.
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In a series of tweets sent early Wednesday, Trump said the investigation would focus on “those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time).”
Trump has long maintained that millions of people voted illegally in the November election, despite winning the majority of Electoral College votes. Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the president believes he lost the popular vote to Clinton only because of widespread illegal ballots.
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“He believes what he believes, based on the information he was provided,” Spicer said. But he would not detail what information he was referring to, citing only a 2008 study that called for updating voter rolls but did not conclude there has been pervasive election fraud.
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Trump first raised the prospect of illegal voting during the transition. On Monday, he reportedly claimed that he’d lost the popular vote because 3 million to 5 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally had voted – that’s according to a Democratic aide familiar with the exchange who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Aides and associates of the president say that he is dogged by insecurity over his loss of the popular vote and believes Democrats and the media are questioning the legitimacy of his presidency.
– With files from The Associated Press