White House rejects Trump's fraud claims

The White House has moved to dismiss Donald Trump's claims he'd have won the popular vote in the US presidential election if illegal votes were deducted.

US president-elect Donald Trump

US president-elect Donald Trump Source: EPA

There has been no evidence of widespread election fraud in the November 8 presidential contest, the White House says in reaction to US President-elect Donald Trump's tweet over the weekend alleging millions of illegal votes and fraud in three states.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking to reporters at a daily briefing on Monday, deferred comments on Trump's specific tweets to the president-elect's team, but added: "What I can say, as an objective fact, is that there has been no evidence produced to substantiate a claim like that."

Trump says that besides winning the Electoral College "in a landslide" in the US election: "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."

The allegation, made without evidence, comes as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote over Trump has surpassed two million votes and is expected to grow to more than 2.5 million as ballots in populous states such as California continue to be tallied.

Clinton's legal team said on Saturday it had agreed to participate in a recount of Wisconsin votes after the state's election board approved the effort requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, which Trump has called "ridiculous".


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Published 29 November 2016 5:58am
Updated 29 November 2016 6:32am
Source: AAP


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