President-Elect Donald Trump has some harsh words for Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s proposed election recount, saying it was “ridiculous” and “a scam,” making a special point of the fact that Hillary Clinton conceded the election to him, which would mean a recount is a waste of time because his rival already, in effect, gave the victory to him.
Trump says recount is just fundraising scheme by Stein
Trump referred to the recount as “just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states,” pointing out the insignificance of Stein as a candidate in comparison to himself and Clinton (mainly himself), “to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount.”
Trump is suggesting that Stein will pocket most of the money, which is the largest amount raised for a recount by a third-party candidate in history, as she has so far raised $5.25 million, and Michael Haas, Administrator for the Wisconsin Election Commission, has estimated the cost of the recounts to be only $520,000, so it stands to reason Stein will be taking the other $4.5 million for her own party.
However, Stein went on CNN to respond to Trump’s statement, saying that all of the funds she has raised for the recount will be “going into a dedicated and segregated account so that it can only be spent on the recount.” She said that Trump has been “creating his own facts here” with his statements, “as he’s been known to do sometimes in the past.” She also commented that Trump himself believed it would be a “rigged election unless he won it.”
‘The people have spoken and the election is over’
Trump believes Stein’s recount is a waste of time. He says, “The people have spoken and the election is over,” then quoting Hillary Clinton on election night when she conceded, “We must accept this result, and then look to the future.”
Trump says that in the states where Stein is calling for a recount, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, he beat out Hillary by “large numbers.” He called the recount “a scam by the Green Party” since the election was already conceded by his close Democratic rival Hillary.
He said that the election results “should be respected instead of being challenged and abused,” but if he had lost, he wouldn’t be respecting the results, he would be challenging them and abusing them to the max.
Even if Trump isn't, the Clinton campaign is cooperating with Stein's recounts, though both they and the White House agree that there is no evidence that voting machines in Wisconsin were hacked, which is the basis of the recount.
