Donald Trump Baselessly Claims That The Presidential Election “Is Rigged”

Wash. Post: Donald Trump “Suggested Without Evidence … That The Election Is ‘Rigged’ Against Him.” The Washington Post reported that at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on October 15, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that the presidential election is “‘rigged’ against him.” The Post noted that Trump did not provide any evidence to back up this claim, “adding a new round of unsubstantiated assertions to an increasingly scathing campaign.” From the October 15 report:

Donald Trump suggested without evidence Saturday that Democrat Hillary Clinton might have been on drugs at their most recent debate and that the election is “rigged” against him, adding a new round of unsubstantiated assertions to an increasingly scathing campaign.

[...]

The GOP presidential nominee’s unsubstantiated claims about a corrupted election, which have become more frequent in recent days amid a growing list of women who allege he has made unwanted sexual advances, drew pushback from the office of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has distanced himself from Trump’s campaign. In a statement, Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said, “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity.” [The Washington Post, 10/15/16]

Latinos In The Media Explain That Trump’s Claim Is Baseless, Could Intimidate Voters, And Might Be Considered Illegal

Noticiero Telemundo: Trump Is Claiming “Without Presenting Any Evidence” That The Election Is “Rigged.” Telemundo correspondent Lori Montenegro cited a study from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School to explain that “it is more likely that a bolt of lightening strike a person than for this person to pretend to be someone else in the polls.” Montenegro noted that fearmongering about voting fraud could “generate other problems” because, as a guest explained, “the law clearly prohibits anything that might try to intimidate or frighten the voter.” Translated from the October 17 edition of Telemundo’s Noticiero Telemundo:

JOSÉ DÍAZ-BALART (CO-HOST): Donald Trump insisted today that there will be massive voter fraud in the elections of this upcoming November 8th. The candidate did not offer any evidence for this accusation, which has been rejected by members of his very own party. Lori Montenegro, with the report.

[...]

LORI MONTENEGRO (CORRESPONDENT): Donald Trump, without presenting any evidence, continued to warn in various tweets that “the election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary, but also at many polling places.” He called Republican leaders naive for denying what is happening. And now there are supporters who say that this could have been happening for years, dead people voting. But many studies indicate everything to the contrary regarding voter fraud in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within the context of the millions of votes that are cast in the elections in the United States, [voting] fraud is almost non-existent.

MONTENEGRO: Trump's accusations emerged when he went down in the polls. Accusations of sexual assault have damaged him. And he is two days away from the last debate with Hillary Clinton. His running mate said that they will respect the results of the election, but today he echoed the words of the magnate.

[BEGIN VIDEO]

GOVERNOR MIKE PENCE: Voter fraud cannot be tolerated by --

[END VIDEO]

MONTENEGRO: “Voter fraud cannot be tolerated,” Mike Pence said. It’s worrisome that these accusations might generate other problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The law clearly prohibits anything that might try to intimidate or frighten the voter.

MONTENEGRO: Others point out that in the last few years, many states have enacted harsher voting laws. According to the Brennan Center in the law school of New York University, it is more likely that a bolt of lightning strike a person than for this person to pretend to be someone else in the polls. [Telemundo, Noticiero Telemundo, 10/17/16]

Univision.com: Trump’s Bogus Voter Fraud Claim “Intimidates” Minority Voters And “Graze[s] A Dangerous Line Between Legal And Illegal.” Univision’s Antonieta Cádiz reported that Trump’s “new message to his followers” is to “vote and then go to ‘other communities’ to make sure ‘that they don’t rob the election from our hands’” in order to fight back against what he calls “large-scale voter fraud.” Cádiz spoke to Latino electorate experts who pointed out that the presence of “observers” at polling locations “intimidates” and suppresses minority voters because “tactics like this ‘generate a hostile environment, especially for people who are voting for the first time.’” Translated from the October 12 article:

Donald Trump has started to spread a new message to his followers: vote and then go to “other communities” to make sure “that they don’t rob the election from our hands.” Hispanic leaders fear that the mogul’s politics of fear might damage voter turnout.

[...]

Even on the campaign’s website, people can sign up to be observers of the elections.

From long experience, Hispanic leaders know that this type of tactics intimidates minority voters.

“We have seen similar strategies before, where they assign people to observe, who basically scare Hispanics and tell them off. Even when they don’t say anything, their presence and the way they dress intimidates,” explained Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO.

[...]

Vargas insisted that tactics like this “generate a hostile environment, especially for people who are voting for the first time and that’s why it’s important that those participating know their rights.”

The director of NALEO also insisted on the necessity that the Department of Justice places the largest possible number of observers in polling places.

[...]

Trump’s words graze a dangerous line between legal and illegal.

In 1982 a decree was issued based on multiple complaints about the intimidation of minority voters between 1970 and 1980.

The decree specified that the Republican Party should not carry out any security activity in voting locations where the ethnic and racial composition is a factor in deciding to monitor these areas.

The order expires in 2017 and can be renewed by the Supreme Court. [Univision.com, 10/12/16]

CNN’s Ana Navarro: Trump’s Claim That The Election Is Rigged Is “Reckless” And “Irresponsible.” CNN political commentator Ana Navarro denounced Trump’s claim that the election is rigged, saying that Trump is trying to “distract” from the onslaught of sexual assault allegations brought against him and “to set it up so that when he is a loser … he can then blame it on somebody else.” Navarro called Trump’s assertion “reckless” and “irresponsible” because he is “inflaming the passions” of his supporters when there is already “too much anger” around this presidential election. From the October 17 edition of CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper:

JAKE TAPPER (HOST): Anna, this morning on CNN, the Republican secretary of state from the state of Ohio John Husted I think said it's “regretful that Mr. Trump continues to allege widespread voter fraud.” What's your response to him? What do you think?

ANA NAVARRO: I thought that was really interesting. I watched the interview because he said he is voting for Trump. So this is somebody who is the secretary of state of Ohio, a swing state, a tight state, and a Trump supporter. But he's out there defending this system because I think what Donald Trump is doing is just so reckless and so irresponsible. And he's doing two things. Number one, he's trying to distract us from the fact that a new woman comes out practically every day to remind us of allegations and confirm what he said and bragged about on that videotape. He's trying to distract us from that. And number two, he's trying to set it up so that when he is a loser, a word that I think he might be physically allergic to, he can then blame it on somebody else. But it is very irresponsible. It is reckless. And let me tell you this. I come from Nicaragua. I come from a country where the elections have been rigged, where there's been communism. I know people who come from Cuba. You do too. I know people who come from Venezuela. Those are rigged elections. Yesterday I was at Mount Vernon, and it inspired me to remember and think what those founding fathers went through to set up this system. Is it a perfect system? No, it's not. But stop calling it a rigged system so that you can start setting up your alibi. You are inflaming the passions. There is way too much anger out there, and this is not helping. Show the evidence. That's what the secretary of state of Ohio said. Show me the evidence of fraud, and we will deal with it. [CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper, 10/17/16]

Univision’s Luis Megid: If This Rhetoric Continues, “Some Voters Could Feel Intimidated And Not Go To The Polls On Election Day.” Univision correspondent Luis Megid explained that Trump’s “complaints that the election is rigged do not help” the “political debate,” especially given that “there is no evidence that voter fraud exists or ever existed.” Megid also pointed out that this rhetoric could cause “some voters to feel intimidated and not go to the polls on election day.” Translated from the October 17 edition of Univision’s Noticiero Univision:

MARIA ELENA SALINAS (CO-HOST): North Americans are very politically divided, in case you haven’t noticed, and the strong rhetoric of the electoral campaign is dividing us even more. Cases of violence have already been registered, including an attack against one of Donald Trump’s campaign offices in North Carolina. And as Luis Megid tells us, the Republican candidate is even questioning the legitimacy of the elections.

LUIS MEGID (CORRESPONDENT): The incendiary rhetoric of the presidential campaign has consequences that go even further than words. One example: this weekend, someone threw a bomb into the Republican campaign offices in Hillsborough, North Carolina. A message on the wall said that Republicans are Nazis. And although there is no evidence, Donald Trump said through a tweet that those responsible are “animals” that represent Clinton and the Democrats. The incident is an example of how the political debate has deteriorated.

[BEGIN VIDEO]

DONALD TRUMP: It looks to me like a rigged election.

[END VIDEO]

MEGID: Donald Trump’s complaints that the election is rigged do not help, especially because there is no evidence that voter fraud exists or has ever existed. Republican analysts say that Donald Trump isn’t actually referring to that.

JESÚS MÁRQUEZ (REPUBLICAN ANALYST): What Donald Trump is referring to is that it is obvious that, for example, at this time the media are not also saying or scrutinizing what Hillary Clinton says, for example. They are talking about all of the bad things about Donald Trump.

[BEGIN VIDEO]

DONALD TRUMP: The election is being rigged by corrupt media.

[END VIDEO]

MEGID: This is not the first time that Trump and those who support him have blamed the press. This has been a recurring theme in his campaign. But the climate that the claims of rigging and fraud are worrying those who want people to get out and vote.

JOCELYN SIDA (DIRECTOR OF MI FAMILIA VOTA): At this moment, it is a historical election because everything that we are seeing, the ugliness that we are all seeing, is going to go into the books that our children are going to see about the past. And we are going to have to tell them how we received the results of the democracy of the United States, how we go past the negativity.

MEGID: The worry is that if the rhetoric continues increasing in tone, some voters could feel intimidated and not go to the polls on Election Day. This could have an impact in states like Nevada, where both candidates are pretty much tied in the polls. [Univision, Noticiero Univision, 10/17/16]