FEC chairwoman to Trump: ‘There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud’

The chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday doubled down on her call for President Trump to stop making claims of election fraud unless he can show evidence it happened. 

“Facts matter, and people of America need to be able to believe what their leaders tell them,” Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, said on CNN’s “New Day.”

Weintraub during the interview defended a letter she sent to Trump on Saturday demanding he provide evidence to support his claim that he would have won New Hampshire’s electoral votes in 2016 if not for voter fraud, or stop repeating the accusation.{mosads}

“It is damaging to our democracy to spread information that … is baseless. There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016 or really in any previous election,” she said. 

“People have studied this, academics have studied this, lawyers have studied this, the government has studied this, Democrats have studied this, Republicans have studied this, and no one can find any evidence of rampant voter fraud either historically or particularly in the 2016 elections,” she added.

“There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016,” says FEC chair Ellen Weintraub. “To be suggesting to people that if the candidate they choose doesn’t win, that it’s because of fraud, that undermines our democracy.”https://t.co/ACJVwMUV7u pic.twitter.com/9eXaEB6NZm

— New Day (@NewDay) August 19, 2019

Weintraub said if such fraud did exist, “we really need to be taking action.”

But the FEC chairwoman said the White House has not been responsive to her requests. 

She said that she has never been given information regarding evidence of voter fraud, adding that local officials haven’t received any either, and are offended by the claims. 

“These are serious allegations … but if there is no proof then these things really shouldn’t be said,” Weintraub said. 

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to comment. 

Weintraub’s letter was sent to Trump after he told New Hampshire voters at a rally last week that it wasn’t their “fault” that he had lost the state in 2016, claiming that the state had been “taken” from his campaign.

Trump has long alleged that he would have won the national popular vote against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 if not for millions of illegal votes, without providing any evidence for his accusations. 

His claims spurred a short-lived voter fraud commission headed by Vice President Pence and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) that disbanded without producing evidence of wide-spread fraud.