Donald Trump may claim that voter fraud is rampant, but his own experience being turned away from voting twice during the 2004 presidential election suggests he should know better.
In 2004, during an appearance on "Access Hollywood" — of course it would be with Billy Bush — Trump was turned away from two different polling sites during the presidential election because his name wasn’t on the rolls. The error occurred because Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., had changed his address, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating for the GOP nominee.
Trump downplayed the initial disenfranchisement in the way only Donald Trump could do. “OK, I like that location better. It’s a richer location,” he said.
At the second occasion, with visible annoyance, Trump could be heard exclaiming, “So it’s not here, right?”
Trump has spent the past few weeks of this campaign insisting that voter fraud is “very, very common,” and worrying that the presidential election will be stolen from him on Nov. 9. During Wednesday’s presidential debate, he refused to agree to concede the election if it was declared that he had lost to Hillary Clinton, instead saying that he’ll “keep you in suspense.”
Matthew Rozsa is a professional writer whose work has appeared in multiple national media outlets since 2012 and exclusively at Salon since 2016. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012, was a guest on Fox Business in 2019, repeatedly warned of Trump's impending refusal to concede during the 2020 election, spoke at the Commonwealth Club of California in 2021, was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022 and appeared on NPR in 2023. His diverse interests are reflected in his interviews including: President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (1999-2001), animal scientist and autism activist Temple Grandin, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1997-2001), director Jason Reitman ("The Front Runner"), inventor Ernő Rubik, comedian Bill Burr ("F Is for Family"), novelist James Patterson ("The President's Daughter"), epidemiologist Monica Gandhi, theoretical cosmologist Janna Levin, voice actor Rob Paulsen ("Animaniacs"), mRNA vaccine pioneer Katalin Karikó, philosopher of science Vinciane Despret, actor George Takei ("Star Trek"), climatologist Michael E. Mann, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (2013-present), dog cognition researcher Alexandra Horowitz, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson (2012, 2016), comedian and writer Larry Charles ("Seinfeld"), seismologist John Vidale, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman (2000), Ambassador Michael McFaul (2012-2014), economist Richard Wolff, director Kevin Greutert ("Saw VI"), model Liskula Cohen, actor Rodger Bumpass ("SpongeBob Squarepants"), Senator John Hickenlooper (2021-present), Senator Martin Heinrich (2013-present), Egyptologist Richard Parkinson, Rep. Eric Swalwell (2013-present), Fox News host Tucker Carlson, actor R. J. Mitte ("Breaking Bad"), theoretical physicist Avi Loeb, biologist and genomics entrepreneur William Haseltine, comedian David Cross ("Scary Movie 2"), linguistics consultant Paul Frommer ("Avatar"), Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (2007-2015), computer engineer and Internet co-inventor Leonard Kleinrock and right-wing insurrectionist Roger Stone.
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