President Donald Trump suggested to Fox News during an interview on Thursday night that the administration is going to deploy as many law enforcement resources as it can during the election to prevent voter fraud from occurring.
Trump blasted efforts by Democrats to institute universal mail-in voting, saying that “this is going to be the greatest scam in history” and “this will be the most fraudulent election in history.”
“My question to you then is, are you going to have poll watchers?” Fox News host Sean Hannity asked. “Are you going to have an ability to monitor, to avoid fraud and cross check whether or not these are registered voters? Whether or not there’s been identification to know that it’s a real vote from a real American?”
“We’re going to have everything,” Trump responded. “We’re going to have sheriffs and we’re going to have law enforcement and we’re going to have hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals. But it’s very hard.”
“I mean, you have some of these states sending them out like Nevada where they don’t even have to check the signatures so anybody can sign it,” Trump continued. “New Jersey just sent it where the governor, as I understand, has just signed an executive order, didn’t even go through the legislature to get it done. And nobody has ever heard of anything like this.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: You know, let me — let me ask you, you said about the election, the only way they could win is a rigged election.
This whole issue of mail-in balloting, the Heritage Foundation — I have it here in front of me — the sampling fraud cases across the country. What they found is 1,088 proven instances of voter fraud, and that includes 949 criminal convictions.
They had a Philadelphia fraud case that has expanded. A West Virginia mail carrier nabbed in a mail-in ballot scheme. California voter fraud exposed what they call a Skid Row scheme.
Illinois let non-citizens register to vote in a blunder there. Alabama, absentee ballots fraud in 2019. A pay-to-vote scheme exposed in New Jersey. A Wisconsin county supervisor admitted to ballot fraud.
Absentee ballot thief in Florida. The wife of a mayoral candidate nabbed in New Mexico. Indiana cop convicted of voter fraud to help his father win the race. Double voting in Arizona — 1,088 proven cases of voter fraud, 949 criminal convictions, sir.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it’s a disaster and it’s going to be, no matter how you look at it. They are sending out 51 million ballots to people that didn’t ask for them.
Now, absentee ballots are great. I used one for Florida. And a lot of people use absentee — a lot of people in Florida use them.
But that’s when you go through a process. You ask for it, they send it to you, and it’s very secure. There is nothing like going to the voter’s booth, by the way, but — it’s — and we should have voter ID, which the Democrats don’t want for obvious reasons, with your picture on it.
But absentee is good. But they want to send what’s called mail-in, universal mail-in ballots. Fifty-one million ballots sent to who knows who? I mean, you know, where are they going?
This is going to be the greatest scam in history. This will be the most fraudulent election in history. Fifty-one million ballots being sent to people.
Many of them will have been dead. Many of them will get more than one. But it’s going to be a really horrible thing. It’s just a horrible, horrible thing. And it’s impossible to police.
You had Carolyn Maloney, a congresswoman who’s not a very good one, on the East Side of Manhattan. I mean, that thing was so messed up for weeks and weeks, and they just declared her a winner, but they have no idea where the votes are, where the ballots are. It’s gone.
New Jersey, a disaster, it’s been a disaster in New Jersey, a horrible disaster. And Virginia has been — and we’re talking about things that just took place, and small elections relatively.
But now, they are talking about sending 51 million ballots out to anybody that — you know, nobody knows who’s going to get them.
HANNITY: Yeah.
TRUMP: It’s a horrible thing. It’s a fraudulent election. Everybody knows it.
You don’t even have to know politics to know it — 51 million ballots are going to indiscriminately sent out to people that didn’t even ask for them, people that say, hey, I just got a ballot. That’s great. Let me vote.
And it’s a — it’s a terrible thing. They’re trying to steal the election.
HANNITY: Dr. Fauci said it would be safe with social distancing and masks for people to vote in person. This is the DNC convention week.
Well, I have been on Fox now 25 years. I always go to the DNC and RNC conventions.
If I was at that DNC convention, every year including your last election, I had to have a picture ID to get in the building. I was checked every night. I was probably double checked — but I’m kidding — to get in the building.
My question to you then is, are you going to have poll watchers? Are you going to have an ability to monitor, to avoid fraud and cross check whether or not these are registered voters? Whether or not there’s been identification to know that it’s a real vote from a real American?
TRUMP: We’re going to have everything. We’re going to have sheriffs and we’re going to have law enforcement and we’re going to have hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals. But it’s very hard.
I mean, you have some of these states sending them out like Nevada where they don’t even have to check the signatures so anybody can sign it. New Jersey just sent it where the governor, as I understand, has just signed an executive order, didn’t even go through the legislature to get it done.
And nobody has ever heard of anything like this.
So, they’re going to be sending out 51 million ballots to people they have no idea why it’s coming, who it’s going to. Unfortunately, they may have a very good idea the people sending them. They may send them to all Democrat areas and not to Republican areas, as an example. It could be the other way too, but I doubt it.
HANNITY: Yeah.
TRUMP: So, it’s a very — it’s a very serious problem. And, you know, the other thing, a lot of times, you don’t even have to send it back until after the election. So, on November 3rd, the evening, like we used to sit at home and hearing, “Trump won the election, what a great thing”.
And you saw how happy Hillary’s people were. They were thrilled when I won. You saw that. That’s one of the all-time classic —
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