Three days after the election, a little-known right-wing activist named Gregg Phillips tweeted that he had found “more than three million votes cast by non-citizens,” even as he explained that he would not release any evidence substantiating his claim.
Naturally, it didn’t take long for members of the conservative media, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whose insane reporting has been touted by Donald Trump, to declare, in Jones’ words, that it is an “uncontrovertible [sic] fact that 3 million illegals voted.”
Soon enough, Trump himself was making the claim that “millions of people” had “voted illegally” for Hillary Clinton, giving her a 2.9 million vote lead in the popular vote, even though the president’s own lawyers said that “all available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.”
This morning, Trump tweeted that he looks “forward to seeing final results of VoteStand. Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!”
Not coincidentally, Phillips appeared on CNN’s New Day this morning, where he once again insisted that he will not unveil any evidence to back up his allegation, saying that it must be true because Trump believes it: “Our analysis is what it is and we believe that truth is truth and if the president and his team believe the same is true, then maybe they are.”
After using this circular logic, Phillips said, “I know, you just don’t believe that I know.” In other words, Phillips wants people to believe his claim despite the fact he still refuses to publish any analysis or evidence—and the fact that many experts have already proved him wrong. Nonetheless, Phillips insisted that “we know we have the answer. The number’s actually bigger.”
Nonetheless, Phillips insisted that “we know we have the answer. The number’s actually bigger.”
Trump’s shout-out to Phillips is only the latest of his desperate attempts to find backing up his bogus claim of millions of non-citizens voting. Just this week, Trump has cited as evidence of his claims a secondhand story about
Just this week, Trump has cited as evidence of his claims a secondhand story about a noncitizen golfer friend who was barred from voting even as people who supposedly looked like they were from Latin American countries cast ballots; a Pew study that didn’t say what he thought it said; and faulty voter registration rolls that don’t actually show that fraud is taking place. When that didn’t work, he just lied about his past remarks.
But, despite his best efforts to find actual evidence of massive voter fraud, Trump still appears to be relying on a few unsubstantiated tweets sent by one conservative activist. Plenty to justify a federal investigation!
Gregg Phillips, the man who claims to have the names of 3million who voted illegally, talks with me on New Day https://t.co/kqdG0h6nZB
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) January 27, 2017
