House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer slammed the election results Tuesday, saying the majority of the country’s views did not prevail.
Hoyer he said witnessing the transfer of power during the Friday inauguration of President Donald Trump was profound, adding he accepted the sitting president was elected legitimately.
“It is particularly profound when it happens when one side believes that they well have won the election,” he told reporters. “Now that was certainly true in 2001, but also somewhat true this time, although is no doubt that it was consistent with our laws as it was in 2001. George Bush was and Donald Trump is the president of the United States duly elected.”
Hoyer, who considered challenging the electoral vote certification, voiced his frustration with the system, blasting the rules of the electoral college for allowing roughly 80,000 people from three states to determine the election results.
“I tend to observe, however, that the election was rigged, it was rigged by the founding fathers in creating the electoral college,” he continued. “That’s not exactly what Mr. Trump meant, but one could say that the 3 million people — 65 million as opposed to the 62 million — did not have their view, the 65 million, the majority of the people did not have their view prevail.”
Trump invited congressional leadership from both parties to the White House for a meet-and-greet Monday, where he told members he believes he would have won the popular vote if it weren’t for illegal votes. Hoyer blasted the claim, saying Trump refuses to accept facts he doesn’t like.
“Well, at one point in the meeting he indicated that he won the popular vote, and that upwards of 3-to-5 million people voted illegally — he offered no proof of that,” he said. “I don’t remember any member around the table saying they agreed with that, and I certainly don’t agree with that.”
According to Hoyer, Trump’s inaugural address was “divisive, confrontational and wrong.”
“Carnage does not describe the state of the union — in fact the state of the union as a result of the Obama presidency is very, very , very much better than it was in January of 2009,” he said.
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