New York Times political reporter Nicholas Confessore said Thursday that the United States has never had any "large-scale fraud in voting."
On "Deadline: White House," host Nicolle Wallace lambasted President Donald Trump for saying "millions" voted illegally. She asked Confessore to "take on all the falsehoods and the lies" Trump was spreading, and Confessore did not just criticize Trump’s claim but also said the U.S. has never seen large-scale voting fraud.
"First of all, so there is no evidence—no one has ever found any evidence of large-scale fraud in voting in the country ever," Confessore said. "It does not happen."
Confessore's comment does not accord with a great deal of historical evidence about party machines in American history, which used a range of fraudulent means to control elections. Chicago had a Democratic Party machine in the 20th century that dominated politics through voting fraud.
Illegal activities included registering deceased Chicagoans to vote, paying voters to vote for Democratic candidates, precinct captains stealing ballots, spying on voters to ensure they chose Democratic candidates, and much more. Mayor Richard J. Daley (D.) held office from 1955 to 1976 and was said to have "mastered" the city’s politics through these fraudulent means.
In 1982, Chicago also had an estimated 100,000 ballots improperly cast, leading to 63 individual convictions. In addition to all the vote fraud earlier in U.S. history, there have been recent convictions all over the country, as the Heritage Foundation has tabulated 1,107 proven instances of voter fraud since 1982.
Confessore argued that Americans are too apathetic about voting to participate in large-scale voter fraud.
"You can barely get people to vote legitimately," he said. "The hard part is getting people to actually vote."
While the president has mentioned voter fraud at various points, his administration has not uncovered voter fraud on the scale he has spoken about.