Trump Responds to Philadelphia Commissioner Denying Evidence of Voting Fraud

President Donald Trump speaks in the briefing room at the White House in Washington, on Nov. 5, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump responded to claims from Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, who appeared on CNN claiming that there was no evidence of voter fraud in the city in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump on Wednesday took to Twitter to slam Schmidt, whom he called a “RINO,” a Republican in name only.

“A guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Commissioner and so-called Republican (RINO), is being used big time by the Fake News Media to explain how honest things were with respect to the Election in Philadelphia,” he wrote. “He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!”

Trump’s comments came after Schmidt was asked by CNN if he had seen any evidence of “widespread fraud” in the ballot counting in Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania and one of the nation’s major cities run by Democrats.

“I have not,” Schmidt responded. “If evidence of widespread fraud or evidence of any fraud at all, is brought to our attention, we take a look at it and we refer it to law enforcement as we always do in every election.”

“I have seen the most fantastical things on social media, making completely ridiculous allegations that have no basis in fact at all,” he continued. “I realize a lot of people are happy about this election and a lot of people are not happy about this election. One thing I can’t comprehend is how hungry people are to consume lies and to consume information that is not true.”

This Monday, Trump’s campaign team launched a new lawsuit aiming to stop the certification of election results in Pennsylvania, alleging that Democratic and Republican counties did not follow the same rules regarding defective mail-in ballots, and that Republican observers could not see the ballot counting process from a meaningfully close distance.

“If you were a Democrat in Philadelphia, you were allowed to work outside the bounds of the restrictions on fixing defective ballots, sometimes referred to as ‘curing,’” Matt Morgan, general counsel to Trump campaign, explained during a Monday press conference. “But if you were in Republican counties of the state of Pennsylvania, you were not allowed to do that because they were strictly following the text of the statute in Pennsylvania.”

The lawsuit also includes a postal worker from Erie County who claimed that he had heard his supervisors talking about illegally backdating ballots that arrived late so that they appeared legitimate. His claim was also cited by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling for a federal investigation.