The White House said Tuesday that President Trump still believes that millions of illegal voters cast ballots in the presidential election, but he is “comfortable” with his victory in the Electoral College tally.
“It’s a belief he maintains, a concern that he has about voter fraud,” said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. “He said 3 [million] to 5 million people could’ve voted illegally, based on the studies that he’s seen.”
Asked whether the administration plans to investigate such concerns, Mr. Spicer said it was possible, but he didn’t offer a specific course of action.
“We’re here on Day Two,” he said. “Let’s not prejudge what we may or may not do in the future.”
During a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Monday night, Mr. Trump reiterated to lawmakers his belief that Democrat Hillary Clinton received 3 million to 5 million illegal votes. She outpolled Mr. Trump by nearly 3 million votes, but Mr. Trump defeated her in the all-important Electoral College count.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, told the White House to stop rehashing the election.
“It’s time to be president,” Mr. Schumer said.
But it was Democrats who brought up the issue Tuesday. One senator brought photos of President Obama’s 2009 inauguration and Mr. Trump’s ceremony last week to a Budget Committee hearing and used them to confront Rep. Mick Mulvaney, South Carolina Republican and the president’s nominee to be White House budget director.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon Democrat, demanded that Mr. Mulvaney compare the photos and agree that more people were present on the National Mall for Mr. Obama’s swearing-in eight years ago.
Mr. Schumer said Republicans have an obligation to denounce “falsehoods” from the White House.
Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, who competed for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, said the latest comments on illegal voters was an intentional effort to try to chase legitimate voters away from the polls.
“When Trump talks about 3 to 5 million people voting illegally, he is sending a message to every Republican governor in this country to go forward with voter suppression,” Mr. Sanders said.
Some Republicans also urged the president to drop the matter.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called the president’s comments inappropriate. He said Mr. Trump “seems to be obsessed with the idea that he could not have possibly lost the popular vote without cheating and fraud.”
“I would urge the president to knock this off,” Mr. Graham said.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said there was no evidence to support Mr. Trump’s claims.
“I’ve seen no evidence to that effect. I’ve made that very, very clear,” he told reporters.
Rep. Charles W. Dent, Pennsylvania Republican, said Mr. Trump should move on and “get to the serious business of governing.”
As the issue continued to simmer, Mr. Trump posted a photograph on Twitter of the crowd at his inauguration. The photo, a panorama taken by Washington-based photographer Abbas H. Shirmohammadi, depicts a crowd stretching west from the Capitol for the president’s swearing-in.
Mr. Trump said on Twitter that the photograph “will be displayed in the upper/lower press hall” of the White House, where reporters will see it regularly. The framed photograph was on the wall in the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
When reporters pressed Mr. Spicer for the president’s proof of voter fraud, he cited a 2008 report by the Pew Charitable Trust on large numbers of dead people whose names appeared on registration rolls. Mr. Trump previously cited the report as evidence of “dead people” voting in large numbers.
The report, “Inaccurate, Costly and Inefficient: Evidence That America’s Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade,” didn’t allege that 1.8 million dead people voted, but said it was proof of the need to update voter registration systems.
Mr. Spicer said the president has received other unspecified proof of voter fraud.
“He believes what he believes based on the information he’s been provided,” Mr. Spicer said, adding that the president had mentioned the issue “in passing” with lawmakers.
“He won very handily with 306 electoral votes. He’s very comfortable with his win,” Mr. Spicer said. “This isn’t the first time you’ve heard this concern of his. But he’s very clear that he won the election based on the 306 electoral votes that he got.”
⦁ Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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