At a rally on Monday, Trump called American democracy “rigged,” claimed that Democrats are letting millions of illegal immigrants into the country so they can vote in presidential elections, and said that millions of dead voters were still on the rolls—so they could “vote” for Hillary Clinton in November. He also claimed that Barack Obama won North Carolina in 2008 because of these voters. None of these things are true.
Good Morning America’s Tom Llamas—who Trump once called a “sleaze” in a press conference—interviewed Trump on Monday and asked him about his “rigged election” claims.
Trump tells ABC News' @TomLlamasABC "there is tremendous voter fraud" and he wants it stopped. "We have to be very vigilant and careful" pic.twitter.com/zDvG1wYJJv
— ABC News (@ABC) October 18, 2016
Llamas has gotten a lot of grief online for nodding along as Trump strings together lie after lie and for not challenging him. I’m willing to give Llamas the benefit of the doubt—he nods when he listens and the interview is edited so it’s cut after Trump’s answer—but that doesn’t excuse GMA. In the segment about voter fraud that’s online, Trump’s comments are presented as one side of a typical political skirmish, with Paul Ryan’s counterargument given equal time and weight. (Llamas did challenge the voter fraud claim in another segment on GMA, but that doesn’t seem to be online.)
This is still unacceptable, and it helps explain why 41 percent of voters think that the election could be “stolen.” News outlets have a responsibility to press Trump on his “rigged election” argument because he has no actual evidence to support it. Whenever it’s brought up, it should be challenged or refuted, not amplified.