President-elect Donald Trump, in a post-election rally, slammed the recount of Wisconsin, saying Democrats “were behind it” along with the Green Party. He delivered the remarks at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday night.
After the recount of the state, which reportedly cost Green Party candidate Jill Stein $3.5 million, Trump was shown to have won an extra 131 votes over rival Hillary Clinton. Stein also tried—and failed—to push for recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, which were also won by Trump by a slim margin.
“After millions and millions of dollars were wasted, and countless hours were spent, the recount vote has come back,” Trump said at a rally in West Allis, Wis.
“I called it a scam, but I won’t say that because we want to be nice. OK?” he added. “I refuse to say it was a scam tonight. ”This way, they can’t report that I said it.”
“After all of this money was spent—by the Democrats, believe me, they were behind it—OK? And the Green Party. Wonderful party,” he said.
“She got less than 1 percent, but she thought she was going to catch us,” Trump said, referring to Stein, who raised millions of dollars via an online fundraiser for the recount efforts. Later, the Clinton campaign indicated that they would participate in three-state recount effort.
“What did they spend: $3.5 million for 131 votes? That’s OK,” he said. “Tells you how important every single vote in America is,” Trump added.
On Twitter, Trump noted that he gained votes in the state. “The final Wisconsin vote is in and guess what - we just picked up an additional 131 votes. The Dems and Green Party can now rest. Scam!” he wrote.
According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the recount, which was completed Monday, showed Trump gained 844 votes while Clinton gained 713. Trump won the state by 22,000 ballots. Stein received 66 votes in the recount.
In Pennsylvania and Michigan, federal judges ruled that their respective states have to halt recount efforts.
Stein, who said the recounts should have been conducted to determine if there were voting irregularities or evidence of hacking, said Tuesday that the U.S. doesn’t feature “a voting system we can trust, and the recount was essentially stopped in its tracks,” reported the New York Times.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he was picking former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as energy secretary, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, and former Navy SEAL and Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke to be interior secretary.
