Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:50 pm
In what could be his last great act of service to his country as president, Obama called Donald Trump and the Republican claims of voter fraud fake news.
Video:
The President said:
The reason that we are the only country among advanced democracies that makes it harder to vote is — it traces directly back to Jim Crow and the legacy of slavery and it became sort of acceptable to restrict the franchise (ph). And that’s not who we are. That shouldn’t be who we are. That’s not when America works best. So I hope that people pay a lot of attention to making sure that everybody has a chance to vote. Make it easier, not harder.
This whole notion of election — voting fraud, this is something that has constantly been disproved, this — this is fake news. The notion that there are a whole bunch of people out there who are going out there and are not eligible to vote and want to vote. We have the opposite problem. We have a whole bunch of people who are eligible to vote who don’t vote. And so the idea that we put in place a whole bunch of barriers to people voting doesn’t make sense. And then the — you know, as I said before, political gerrymandering that makes your vote matter less because politicians have decided you live in a district where everybody votes the same way you do so that these aren’t competitive races and we get 90 percent Democratic districts, 90 percent Republican districts, that’s bad for our democracy too. I worry about that.
President-elect Trump regularly tweets about voter fraud.
After the election, Trump blamed his popular vote defeat on voter fraud:
Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias – big problem!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
Obama was correct to call the Republican claims of voter fraud fake news. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims. Even Trump’s own vice president-elect admitted that Trump’s voter fraud claims were only an opinion.
The biggest provider of fake news in the US isn’t a cable news network or a posting on Facebook. The largest provider of fake news in this country is Donald Trump and his Twitter account. Only 4% of Trump statements have been graded as completely true.
Voter fraud is the cover story that Republicans use to carry out their voter suppression strategies. Obama held nothing back at his last press conference as president, and that included reminded everyone that Donald Trump doesn’t only accuse others of fake news. He creates it.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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