Republican @RepKinzinger: Mass voter fraud claim “undermines the idea of an election” t.co/pf6BaW6KTE
Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois went on CNN Friday morning to call for President Donald Trump to produce any evidence to support his claims that three to five million votes were illegally cast in the 2016 presidential election. Kinzinger, who is also the Deputy Republican Whip, told CNN New Day anchor Chris Cuomo that the claims “undermine the Constitution.”
“This basically undermines the idea of an election. This undermines the Constitution,” Kinzinger told Cuomo. “Just as I was upset about the Russian hacking for instance, because it’s an attack on the election system of our Constitution, I don’t like this. Because what this does, without proof… if you really believe there are three to five million illegal votes, please share that proof.”
Kinzinger’s comments came after Trump reportedly told Congressional leaders on January 23 that he believes three to five million votes were illegally cast and that cost him the popular vote. He lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes to Hillary Clinton, but still won the presidency because of the electoral college.
On January 25, Trump then announced plans to launch a “major investigation” into voter fraud. Hours later, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the media that Trump plans on signing an executive order related to voter fraud.
Adam Kinzinger. (Getty)
After his CNN interview aired, Kinzinger tweeted that it is important “we stand for truth, for our democracy, for the Constitution.”
As I said on @NewDay @CNN earlier this morning, it’s important that we stand for truth, for our democracy, for the #Constitution. #fact
In August, Kinzinger went on CNN to say that he didn’t plan on voting for Trump. As RealClearPolitics notes, Kinzinger told other Republicans in Philadelphia on January 28 that he thought Trump did a few good things in his first week as president, but has let the inauguration crowd size issue and voter fraud distract him.
“You’re taking your eye off the message and I think harming your ability to unify Republicans in the country,” Kinzinger said in Philadelphia. “He’s president, he gets to set his own message. If I was advising the team, I’d say, ‘Here’s the great things you’ve done, but some of the rabbit holes on messaging I’d stay away from.’”
