August 20, 2019

Morning Joe started out the segment with this clip of Trump:

"President Trump speaking to reporters on Sunday and before that at his rally in New Hampshire last week, telling supporters that voter fraud cost him the states four electoral votes," Mika Brzezinski.

Trump tweeted: "Wow, report just out. Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 election. It was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump supporter. Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought."

Hillary Clinton responded: "The debunked study you’re referring to was based on 21 undecided voters. For context that’s about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted."

Mika Brzezinski asked FEC chairman Ellen Weintrub what she thought.

"You put out a letter to President Trump asking him to clarify his information. What exactly struck you as untrue or factually questionable?"

"This is not a new claim. Two years ago, the president made the same claim, and I asked the president if he has proof this actually happened, he needs to turn that over to law enforcement authorities because that is a serious problem. But no proof was forthcoming then," she said, referring to a previous claim.

"I didn't anticipate any proof coming forth now. Facts matter, Mika. They matter because the American people deserve the truth from their leaders but they also matter because they have policy consequences. There are real threats to our democracy from abroad from malign foreign actors and there are bipartisan bills in Congress that are teed up and ready for votes that are not happening."

She said there was "no evidence" of anyone voting multiple times.

"I think the Washington Post looked and found four instances of voter fraud after the 2016 election. Scholars have looked into the claims of voter fraud over the years and have not been able to document them," she said.

"One scholar looked at every election from 2000 to 2014 over a billion votes and found about 31 instances of possible voter fraud. These are not changing results. That's not where we need to be focusing our attention."

Weintraub pointed out the author of the quoted study has said Trump is misinterpreting the study, that's not what he meant.

Willie Geist asked Kara Swisher to weigh in.

"You studied Google closely. You're critical of Google when you feel it needs criticism. What do you make of the president's claim here?"

"It's a lie. It's just a flat out lie," she said. "I think Ellen is even understating the situation."

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