ABC News(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump lashed out Sunday against the movement to force general election vote recounts in three states that were critical to his Electoral College, saying that the efforts were “sad.”
Trump, who on numerous occasions during the general election claimed the electoral system was “rigged,” and in 2012 questioned the integrity of the Electoral College following Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama, dug in his heels against the Green Party-backed efforts to recount the vote in the key states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania this weekend, in a series of tweets.
The Hillary Clinton campaign announced on Saturday that it would participate in the recount, although campaign general counsel Mark Elias said in a post on Medium that the campaign has not found “any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology,” after looking into the matter.
In his tweet-storm, Trump criticized the Clinton campaign’s participation by using the candidate’s own words against her.
“Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in. Nothing will change,” Trump started.
He highlighted Clinton’s language about accepting the results of an election: Clinton had criticized Trump in their third debate for implying that he might not concede the election if defeated, and he quoted that answer, as well as her concession speech.
“So much time and money will be spent — same result! Sad,” Trump said in a tweet after quoting Clinton.
On Saturday, Trump called the recount efforts a “Green Party scam to fill up their coffers” in a tweet and then went on to attack the Democrats.
“The Democrats, when they incorrectly thought they were going to win, asked that the election night tabulation be accepted. Not so anymore!” he said.
Elias said in his statement Saturday that the campaign was participating in the recount effort because it has an obligation to the people who voted for Clinton to send legal representation to any court proceedings and have a presence where any recount efforts might take place.
Jill Stein and the Green Party said Friday they raised more than $4 million in three days to support recount efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three key battleground states where Trump narrowly defeated Clinton.
Stein has maintained her activities are in no way intended to benefit Clinton, whom she leveled strong criticisms against during the 2016 election.
George Martin, a former co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party who’s involved in Stein’s recount effort, said the party has been approached by computer scientists, election lawyers and other experts advocating vote recounts because of what they see as persuasive evidence of tampered election results. So far there has not been any verifiable evidence or proof of tampering or hacking. He said the recounts are not to change the outcome of the results but are rather a check and balance on the process of counting votes.
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