By Steven R. Rothman

We must assume, despite whatever the latest White House scandal -- actual or perceived -- that Donald J. Trump will be our president for the next four years.

That's why Trump's repeated and unproven declarations about massive voter fraud cannot be allowed to go unchallenged by Republicans or Democrats.

These irresponsible statements create doubt about the very legitimacy of America's electoral system.

Failure to regularly refute Trump's big lies also creates a dangerous and false foundation for a future of draconian Trump policies, built on those lies.

Trump claims millions of people voted illegally in the November 2016 presidential election. He has publicly expressed these claims every week of his administration, even after Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican Majority Leader, announced there was no credible evidence, and he would not allow federal money to be spent on a probe.

McConnell and other Republicans, as well as Democrats, know his assertions are untrue, and yet he persistently makes these assertions as fact with no proof offered:

Jan 23: Trump told House and Senate leaders that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because "three to five million voted illegally."  Feb. 5: Trump told Bill O'Reilly he would "set up a commission to be headed by Vice President Mike Pence and we're going to look at [massive voter fraud] very, very carefully."  He added, however, that every single one of those illegal votes were cast for Clinton, and "none" for him.

Feb. 10: Trump told Senate leaders that he lost to Clinton in New Hampshire "because thousands of Massachusetts residents were bused to the neighboring state ... to cast ballots against him."

On that same day, Stephen Miller, the president's senior policy adviser, defended on national television Trump's allegations about New Hampshire, saying he personally believed voter fraud" was a problem in New Hampshire, and "is a serious problem in our country." Again he offered no proof.

In New Hampshire, U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who lost her re-election, responded through an aide that no such voter fraud occurred.

New Hampshire's former Attorney General Tom Rath, also a Republican, said "Let me be as unequivocal as possible -  allegations of voter fraud in New Hampshire are baseless, without any merit. It's shameful to spread these fantasies." 

And the Election Division Head, under the state's Democratic Attorney General Joseph Foster, told a local radio station, "We have seen no evidence of large-scale voter fraud whatsoever, and none has been brought to our attention."

We hope Pence will, in fact, create a credible commission to investigate Trump's serious claims about the legitimacy of our 2016 national election. But most importantly, we hope that even more Republican and Democratic leaders will join in the public rejection of Trump's unsubstantiated assault on America's voting system.

As it stands now, Trump's repeated casting of doubt on the integrity of our electoral process, casts doubt on whether the U.S. is really a properly functioning democracy. And that cannot go unchallenged.

Just ask Trump's own lawyers.

In their brief to the Michigan courts asking that Jill Stein's request for a recount be denied, Trump's lawyers wrote: "All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake." The lawyers also reprimanded the Green Party candidate for attempting to "sow doubt regarding the legitimacy of the presidential election."

So why would Trump repeatedly say there was massive voter fraud in the 2016 election when his own lawyers and Republican and Democratic officials say it never happened?

We can only guess his motives.

But what we know is that issues such as immigration limits, the Dream Act, voter ID laws, border walls, congressional and state redistricting, etc. are all affected by claims about "illegitimate people" voting in our elections. 

We also know that massive voter fraud in our country is virtually nonexistent, that the president offers no evidence to the contrary, and that his slander is a present and future danger to our country.

Steven R. Rothman was a U.S. congressman from the 9th District from 1997 to 2013.

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