President Donald Trump urged House Republicans on Tuesday night to be “more paranoid than they are” about vote counting, suggesting in a speech during the National Republican Congressional Committee’s spring dinner that some closely contested elections may have been rigged in Democrats’ favor.
Trump, who has made repeated false claims about voter fraud and “electoral corruption,” told the audience at the dinner that Republicans have “got to watch those tallies.”
“There were a lot of close elections ... they seemed to, every single one of them went Democrat,” Trump said, without providing any specific examples. “There’s something going on fella, hey, you gotta be a little bit more paranoid than you are.”
The president, who suggested — without evidence — during November’s midterm elections that ballots had been “massively infected” in Florida and “electoral corruption” had taken place in Arizona, said on Tuesday that he doesn’t “like the way the votes are being tallied.”
“I don’t like it, and you don’t like it either. You just don’t want to say it because you’re afraid of the press,” Trump said, prompting some laughter from the crowd.
During the NRCC speech, Trump said he was “totally confident” that Republicans would soon “take the House back,” CBS News reported.
He also took a swipe at former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been accused of unwelcome touching by several women.
“I was going to call him … I was going to say, ‘Welcome to the world, Joe. You having a good time, Joe?’” quipped Trump, who has been accused by at least 20 women of sexual assault and harassment.