Just hours after the press corps needled White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer about investigating claims of voter fraud, President Trump announced he would indeed call for an investigation into the matter.
“I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and … even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” Trump said in a series of tweets Wednesday.
The White House press corps hammered Spicer in a briefing Tuesday over Trump’s continued insistence that millions of people voted illegally in the election. Much of the briefing consisted of reporters asking Spicer to provide evidence for Trump’s assertion, and repeated questioning as to why Trump’s not calling for an investigation if he really believes this claim.
“If 3 to 5 million people voted illegally that is a scandal of astronomical proportions,” NPR reporter Mara Liasson asked. “Doesn’t he want to restore American’s faith in their ballot system? Wouldn’t he want an investigation of this? I mean this is a huge, huge scandal.”
“Why not investigate something that is the biggest scandal in American electoral history 3 to 5 million people voting illegally?” she pressed.
“Well maybe we will,” Spicer replied. “And I think we’ll see where we go from here.”
Following the press conference and Trump’s announcement Wednesday morning, some are crediting those journalists with Trump’s decision to actually pull the trigger on the investigation. Trump had been mulling the idea of launching an investigation for weeks in private, but hadn’t moved forward, according to Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.
“Trump has provoked liberals into urging the Sessions Justice Department to investigate voter fraud,” The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto noted, regarding the Liasson question. She had inspired praise from journalist Bill Grueskin, who tweeted at Columbia journalism students, “This is how you do it.”
Author and journalists Tim O’Brien connected the dots. “Trump calls for ‘major investigation’ into voter fraud -after Spicer grilled on why he hadn’t,” he tweeted.
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