Trump’s Misguided Comparison
President Donald Trump made an apples-to-oranges comparison to suggest that his predecessor and Democrats have changed their tune on election rigging.
Trump cited a pre-election quote from then-President Barack Obama telling Trump to “stop whining” about rigged elections because “there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig American elections.” Trump said that after the election “the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems.”
But that’s a faulty comparison.
Obama’s quote was about Trump’s unfounded claims about massive in-person voter fraud, such as noncitizens and “dead people” voting. At the time, Trump repeatedly warned that such voter fraud could tilt the election in Hillary Clinton’s favor. The potential influence of Russian meddling in the election is a different sort altogether.
The alleged Russian efforts — such as the release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails, rallies, and social media posts and advertising — were aimed at convincing
