Before there were Russian hackers and death threats to Electoral College voters, the Democrat’s initial plan to try and steal the election was backing the recounts requested by Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein.
Stein pushed for recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
But the results shocked everyone and left Hillary Clinton with an egg on her face.
Stein’s recount efforts were viewed by many as a fundraising scam.
She initially said her campaign needed $2.5 million to fund the recounts.
Then when she blew through that number, she claimed the recounts would cost $4.5 million.
Finally she settled on $7.5 million.
But her recount efforts were all for naught.
Wisconsin certified the results of Donald Trump as the winner.
The kicker was Trump even gained 162 more votes from the effort.
Thanks to Stein, Clinton actually lost the election by a tiny margin more than initially reported.
Her push for a recount in Pennsylvania was even more embarrassing.
She missed the deadline to file and requested a federal judge to order one on the grounds that the vote tallies were “hacked”.
The judge rejected her request and responded with a blistering opinion that tore Stein’s arguments to shreds.
CNN reports:
“Pennsylvania, meanwhile, said it certified Trump as its winner hours after a federal judge blocked Stein’s push for a recount, saying her suspicion of hacking “borders on the irrational.”
US District Judge Paul Diamond wrote in a 31-page decision that there are “at least six separate grounds” requiring him to deny Stein’s request for a by-hand count of Pennsylvania’s paper ballots.
“Most importantly, there is no credible evidence that any ‘hack’ occurred, and compelling evidence that Pennsylvania’s voting system was not in any way compromised,” Diamond wrote in the decision.
It’s the latest setback for Stein’s effort to have votes recounted in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — three states where President-elect Donald Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton.”
A federal judge in Michigan also put a stop to Stein’s ridiculous recount requests.
Clinton lost all three states by just under 100,000 votes.
The biggest swing ever in a recount was the 1,247 votes Al Gore cut in George W. Bush’s margin in Florida.
Pushing the recount was a fool’s errand by Clinton, but some argue she had two motivations.
Either she was trying to overturn the election results, or she was trying to delegitimize Trump’s victory and set him up for defeat in 2020.
She failed on both counts.
Donald Trump responded by gloating on Twitter.