Even though Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the President of the United States, he wasn't happy about everything. Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, and has cited the debunked conspiracy theory of voter fraud as his excuse.
Voter fraud trouble
Heading into Election Day, Donald Trump would often claim that the election was rigged. After he won, he shifted his talking point to allegations of voter fraud that prevented him from winning the popular vote. One of Trump's sources to back up his claim is Gregg Phillips, who runs the right-wing voter fraud watch group known as "VoteStand." Phillips has claimed since November that he has proof that at least three million votes were cast illegally, but has never produced any evidence to back up his alleged study.
Phillips appeared for an interview on the January 27 edition of "New Day" on CNN, and the segment quickly became one-sided.
Man behind claim of millions of illegal votes says it will be months before he can provide full evidence https://t.co/puQ7tCOpf5
— New Day (@NewDay) January 27, 2017
Joining CNN host Chris Cuomo was Gregg Phillips, with the topic voter fraud as the highlight part of the discussion. Cuomo pressed Phillips on his claims that he has "verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens" after an "analysis of database of 180 million voter registrations." "This is a very silly circle we are going in right now," Cuomo said, before adding, "You say you can prove it, I say 'OK, I trust you,' but you do not." After asking when the data will finally be released, Phillips appeared to become very nervous.
Look forward to seeing final results of VoteStand. Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2017
"We...we believe that...that...it will probably take a few months," Gregg Phillips admitted while tripping over his words. "You put this out in the beginning of November, and the states didn't certified until after that," Chris Cuomo pointed out, stating, "You can't do it off the certified counts because you didn't have them." Phillips then pushed back, never clarifying how they actually got their numbers in the first place.
The CNN host continued to ask for the data, but was denied each time. The conversation went in circles, with Phillips giving excuses for why he wouldn't release the data, and never clarifying further about how it was gathered.
Moving forward
Despite no credible evidence being presented to back up the theory of voter fraud, Donald Trump still insists that it is a major issue.
On Thursday night, a leaked audio tape was released by The Guardian which revealed Vice President Mike Pence agreeing with Trump's claims, and explaining that a further investigation will take place.
