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| Trump pledges "major investigation into voter fraud" | Trump pledges "major investigation into voter fraud" |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| President Donald Trump has promised a "major investigation into voter fraud", after making claims about millions of illegal ballots. | President Donald Trump has promised a "major investigation into voter fraud", after making claims about millions of illegal ballots. |
| The new president said the inquiry would include "those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal". | The new president said the inquiry would include "those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal". |
| Mr Trump also said the probe would focus on "those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)". | Mr Trump also said the probe would focus on "those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)". |
| He has alleged that up to five million illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton, but has offered no evidence. | |
| Is there any evidence of illegal votes? | |
| "Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!" Mr Trump said of his planned inquiry. | "Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!" Mr Trump said of his planned inquiry. |
| Mr Trump is later expected to sign immigration-related decrees, including on his plan to build a wall along the US border with Mexico. | |
| The president first made the claim about voter fraud in a late November tweet. | |
| Fact-checkers have rejected it as untrue and Republican election officials in key states have said they found no proof of fraudulent voting. | |
| White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that Mr Trump continues to believe it, "based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him". | |
| Mr Spicer was repeatedly pressed to specify such research, but failed to do so. | |
| Trump must move on - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington | |
| Donald Trump just can't let it go. Even with a comfortable electoral college victory over Hillary Clinton last November, his three-million-vote deficit to his Democratic presidential opponent clearly is eating at him. It's an open wound on his psyche that leaves him looking for someone to blame. | |
| How else to explain the president's continued allegations that undocumented immigrants cast millions of illegal votes for his opponent, despite no supporting evidence? | |
| It would be in Mr Trump's interest to simply move on. Or, if he truly feels his concerns are legitimate, to announce a robust effort to investigate what would easily be the biggest electoral heist in US history. | |
| Instead, he has vented his angst in early morning tweets and during closed-door meetings with his members of Congress. The end result is a distracting media frenzy that forces his Republican allies - including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan - to distance themselves from his unsubstantiated accusations. | |
| It's creating a rift within conservative ranks when the one thing Mr Trump needs - in fact, the only thing he really needs to enact his agenda - is party unity. | |
| On Tuesday, the National Association of Secretaries of State said it had confidence in the "systemic integrity of our election process" and was not aware of any evidence related to Mr Trump's claims. | |
| Mrs Clinton, the Democratic candidate, received nearly three million votes more than Mr Trump, who won the presidency by prevailing in so-called swing states. | |
| On Tuesday, Republicans admonished Mr Trump and urged him to drop the matter a day after the closed doors meeting with congressional leaders. | |
| Senator Lindsey Graham called the comments "inappropriate", adding that Mr Trump should "knock this off". | |
| He continued that the president "seems to be obsessed with the idea that he could not have possibly lost the popular vote without cheating and fraud". | |
| Republican Pennsylvania Representative Charlie Dent also weighed in, saying Mr Trump needed to move on and "get to the serious business of governing". | |
| Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said it was "nonsensical" and he feared Mr Trump was paving the way for Republican governors to "go forward with voter suppression". |