Wednesday night, President Donald Trump gave his first TV interview from the White House, to ABC's David Muir. In the interview, Trump talked about commencing the building of the wall, said that his speech at the CIA went swimmingly ("In fact, they said it was the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning had won the Super Bowl and they said it was equal. . . That speech was a total home run."), and doubled down on his claim that his was the "biggest crowd in the history of inaugural speeches."
But Trump got a little short-fused when Muir brought up Trump's statements on voter fraud. Trump has claimed several times (via Twitter) that he only lost the popular vote because 3 to 5 million people voted illegally (and all of them for Hillary Clinton).
Here's a bit of their tense exchange:
David Muir: But 3 to 5 million illegal votes?
President Trump: Well, we're gonna find out. But it could very well be that much. Absolutely.
DM: But…
PT: But we're gonna find out. . . In fact, I heard one of the other side, they were saying it's not 3 to 5. It's not 3 to 5. I said, "Well, Mr. Trump is talking about registration, tell—" He said, "You know we don't wanna talk about registration." They don't wanna talk about registration.
You have people that are registered who are dead, who are illegals, who are in two states. You have people registered in two states. They're registered in a New York and a New Jersey. They vote twice. There are millions of votes, in my opinion. Now…
DM: But again…
PT: I'm doing an investigation. David, David, David ...
DM: You’re now, you’re now president of the United States when you say ...
PT: Of course, and I want the voting process to be legitimate.
DM: But what I'm asking…
PT: The people that…
DM: …what I'm asking that—when you say in your opinion millions of illegal votes, that is something that is extremely fundamental to our functioning democracy, a fair and free election.
PT: Sure. Sure. Sure.
DM: You say you're gonna launch an investigation.
PT: Sure, done.
DM: What you have presented so far has been debunked. It's been called [inaudible] false.
PT: No, it hasn't. Take a look at the Pew reports.
DM: I called the author of the Pew report last night. And he told me that they found no evidence of voter fraud.
PT: Really? Then why did he write the report?
DM: He said no evidence of voter fraud.
PT: Excuse me, then why did he write the report? . . . According to Pew report, then he's—then he's groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they wanna write something that you wanna hear but not necessarily millions of people wanna hear or have to hear.
DM: So, you’ve launched an investigation?
PT: We're gonna launch an investigation to find out. And then the next time—and I will say this, of those votes cast, none of 'em come to me. None of 'em come to me. They would all be for the other side. None of 'em come to me. But when you look at the people that are registered: dead, illegal and two states and some cases maybe three states—we have a lot to look into.
DM: House Speaker Paul Ryan has said, "I have seen no evidence. I have made this very, very clear." Senator Lindsey Graham saying, "It's the most inappropriate thing for a president to say without proof. He seems obsessed with the idea that he could not have possibly lost the popular vote without cheating and fraud." I wanna ask you about something bigger here. Does it matter more now…
PT: There's nothing bigger. There's nothing bigger.
DM: But it is important because…
PT: Let me just tell you, you know what's important, millions of people agree with me when I say that if you would’ve looked on one of the other networks and all of the people that were calling in they're saying, "We agree with Mr. Trump. We agree." They're very smart people.
The people that voted for me—lots of people are saying they saw things happen. I heard stories also. But you're not talking about millions. But it's a small little segment. I will tell you, it's a good thing that we're doing because at the end we're gonna have an idea as to what's going on. Now, you're telling me Pew report has all of a sudden changed. But you have other reports and you have other statements. You take a look at the registrations, how many dead people are there? Take a look at the registrations as to the other things that I already presented.
DM: And you're saying . . .those people who are on the rolls voted, that there are millions of illegal votes?
PT: I didn't say there are millions. But I think there could very well be millions of people. That's right.
DM: You tweeted though…
PT: And I also say this…
DM: …you tweeted, "If you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally, I won the popular vote."
PT: David, and I also say this, if I was going for the popular vote I would've won easily. But I would've been in California and New York. I wouldn't have been in Maine. I wouldn't have been in Iowa. I wouldn't have been in Nebraska and all of those states that I had to win in order to win this. I would've been in New York, I would've been in California. I never even went there.
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