President Donald Trump accused Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt in a tweet on Wednesday of refusing to look into his allegations of voter fraud in the city during the election.
Schmidt is the only Republican on a three-member panel of commissioners who oversee the elections in Philadelphia. Trump has made several claims of illegal votes being counted in Philadelphia and has filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania – as well as other states – to block the certification of mail-in ballots here, which overwhelmingly favored President-elect Joe Biden.
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To date, none of the claims by Trump or his allies of voter fraud – in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania or anywhere else in the United States – have proven to be true.
"A guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Commissioner and so-called Republican (RINO), is being used big time by the Fake News Media to explain how honest things were with respect to the Election in Philadelphia. He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!" Trump said in the tweet, which has since been flagged by Twitter.
Schmidt spoke to "60 minutes" on Sunday and responded to some of the claims made by the president and his campaign, as well as death threats made to local election officials after the Pennsylvania – and its 20 electoral votes – swung in favor of Biden, and secured him the presidency.
"From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged," Schmidt said. "At the end of the day, we are counting eligible votes cast by voters. The controversy surrounding it is something I don't understand. It's people making accusations that we wouldn't count those votes, or people are adding fraudulent votes, or just coming up with all sorts of crazy stuff."
You can watch the "60 Minutes" interview below:
Trump held a press conference last Thursday alleging voter fraud in the Philly that favored Biden. CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins tweeted earlier Wednesday morning that Schmidt said election officials have looked into one of Trump's claims: that dead people's votes were still counted in Philadelphia.
"Between everything else that we're doing, we looked it up — each one of them to see what their vote history was. Not a single one voted in Philadelphia after they died," Schmidt said.
Also on Wednesday morning, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey joined the small group of GOP lawmakers saying Trump should cooperate with the transition to the Biden administration.
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"We're on a path it looks likely Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States," Toomey, said to Pittsburgh's Action News 4. "It's not 100% certain but it is quite likely. So I think a transition process ought to begin."
PhillyVoice has reached out to Schmidt for additional comment and this article will be updated as needed.
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