President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday criticized the election recount request of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
“The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, ‘We must accept this result and then look to the future,'” Trump said, referring to Clinton’s concession speech on the day after the election.
Stein announced on Wednesday that she would file for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three swing states won by Trump. She filed for a recount in Wisconsin on Friday. Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Saturday said she would participate in the Wisconsin recount in order to “ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides,” though they don’t expect the outcome to change.
“This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount,” Trump said.
Stein launched a fundraising page to pay for filing and legal fees, estimating that the total cost of recounts in all three states would be $6 to $7 million. Stein pledged to use any surplus money toward “election integrity efforts” and “voting system reform.” The fundraising page had raised more than $5.8 million as of Saturday afternoon.
“This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing,” Trump said in his statement.