'Spurious' lie: Ex-conservative cuts down Trump's latest election 'fearmongering'

Former President Donald Trump's latest bogeyman is to demand passage of legislation that would force people to produce proof of citizenship to register to vote — and it's all based on a pernicious lie, wrote former conservative turned anti-Trump columnist Jennifer Rubin for the Washington Post.

"This might sound familiar. Former President Donald Trump cooked up the excuse for losing the popular vote in 2016: Millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton!" wrote Rubin.

However, she wrote, "Just as his 'investigation' of that spurious accusation turned up no evidence of undocumented immigrants voting en masse, the absence of any evidence in case of their defeat in November probably will not stop Republicans from crying foul, filing specious legal challenges, refusing to certify results, claiming that the election was rigged and trying to overturn the results."

The reality, she wrote, is that noncitizen voting is already illegal and an extremely rare occurrence as states already have other, less invasive ways of preventing it — and institutions that study voting have found only a couple dozen cases out of tens of millions of votes, and across data spanning decades.

On the other hand, the proof-of-citizenship bill Trump and the GOP tried to attach to government funding this month would be a massive obstacle to some entirely legal voters — in particular, women who changed their name in marriage, who would have to deal with the name discrepancy when they produce their birth certificate.

ALSO READ: Trump's hate-filled rhetoric and its violent consequences

But this "xenophobic" lie is persisting, Rubin continued, and causing innocent people to get caught in the crosshairs: "Even without data, MAGA election deniers may well seek to stall certification, citing some bogus study and/or concocting affidavits based on mere speculation.

"As we saw in 2020 — when Trump filed more than 60 lawsuits without substantiating instances of fraud — Trump may again try to sow doubt, implore his congressional allies to throw out electoral votes and even whip up another mob."

Meanwhile, Tennessee and Alabama generated lists of thousands of voters who may not have been citizens, even though almost all likely are, and in some cases sent them letters threatening jail time.

"If nothing else, the wave of baseless fearmongering about undocumented immigrant voting should remind the pro-democracy, anti-Trump coalition: If the election is not close, it makes it harder for Republicans to rerun the horror of 2020," Rubin concluded.