Trump claims 'Democrats paid to vote' as he slams NYT report that says his campaign duped donors
Former President Donald Trump slammed the New York Times over an April 3 report which claimed that his campaign duped donors into giving extra cash without consent.
Trump, in an emailed statement, termed the report titled 'How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations', as a "completely misleading, one-sided attack piece" before going on to repeat his widely disproven claim about voter fraud in the 2020 US presidential elections.
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“In yet another highly partisan story, the failing New York Times wrote a completely misleading, one-sided attack piece this weekend that tried to disparage our record-setting grassroots fundraising operation during the 2020 campaign,” Trump said.
The ex-president accused the publication of writing the piece to "disparage" his campaign's "record-setting grassroots fundraising operation." "Except for the massive voter fraud, this was a campaign that was easily won by your favorite Republican president, me!" Trump said. "Our support in 2020 was so big — never before seen (received more votes than any sitting President in history, by far), that it has become a major threat to the Democrat Party, which explains why the New York Times immediately rushed to defend their Radical Left allies.” he added.
Of the report, Trump said: "The New York Times knew this but buried these details in their story — they didn’t talk about, however, how the CHEATING Democrats circumvented State Legislatures (approval is required by the U.S. Constitution) in Swing States to rig the 2020 Presidential Election, or how Democrats paid for votes in many Urban Centers, in a little thing called ‘walking around money,’ how Democrats threatened Union Members with the loss of their jobs if they didn’t vote Democrat, massive Fake Mail-In Ballots, illegal immigrants and dead people who voted (for Dems), and much more.”
“Before our two campaigns, 2016 and 2020, Republicans would always lose small dollar donations. Now we win, or do very well, because we are the Party of Working Americans, and we beat the Democrats at their own game," said Trump in a statement reported by the New York Post. His voter fraud claims have, however, failed in court.
The NY Times article stated that refunds issued by the former president's campaign and the Republican National Committee were higher (at $64.3 million) than those issued by President Joe Biden’s campaign and Democratic groups (at $5.6 million). The report said that the Trump campaign set up donors automatically to make weekly contributions instead of only once, and also made the opting out of recurring donations option very difficult to find.
Trump stated that his campaign learned from the Democrats' ActBlue to gather small donations — "and now we're better than they are!" "In fact, many people were so enthusiastic that they gave over and over, and in certain cases where they would give too much, we would promptly refund their contributions," he said.
“Our fundraising efforts, working together with the Republican party, were all done legally, and all with the goal of ensuring that my Administration could continue to Make America Great Again," he said, adding that the 2020 election was "massively rigged and stolen", and urged his reader to "now look what is happening to our Country, and in particular at our southern border". He added: "If you are one of the record-setting 75 million Americans who voted for me, donated or volunteered, THANK YOU! The best is yet to come!”