{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-to-trump-retract-voter-fraud-lie-rebuild-democracy-dont-tear-it-down", "Brown to Trump: Retract Voter Fraud Lie, Rebuild Democracy, Don't Tear it Down", "2016-11-29", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "OH", "Sherrod Brown", "B000944", "www.brown.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Says Compromise and Cooperation Needed after Close Election, Asks Trump to Work with Democrats on Areas of Agreement, Instead of Supporting Extreme Plans to Privatize Medicare, Social Security\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tTuesday, November 29, 2016\n            \n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today warned President-Elect Donald Trump that his false conspiracy theories and lie that millions voted \u201cillegally\u201d are a threat to democracy.\u00a0In a letter to Trump sent today, Brown \u2013 who oversaw eight elections as Ohio\u2019s Secretary of State \u2013 called on Trump to retract the statement.\r\nBrown pointed out that while Trump won the election, the President-elect still has a responsibility to serve the millions of Americans who voted for someone else. After such a close election, Brown said, cooperation and compromise are the only path forward to unite the country. And he called on Trump to work with Democrats on areas of agreement instead of supporting extreme policy agendas that millions of voters rejected, like privatizing Medicare and Social Security.\u00a0\r\n\u201cThere is no evidence \u2013 zero \u2013 of any large-scale voter fraud in the United States. Not in this election and not in any presidential election in recent memory.\u00a0Peddling this nonsense and stoking these fears undermines our system of government \u2013 and your own election, damaging the public\u2019s faith in our democracy,\u201d Brown wrote.\u00a0\r\n\u201cAs public servants, our job is to represent everyone we serve \u2013 not only those who voted for us:\u00a0it\u2019s the job we signed up for.\u00a0\r\n\u201cWhile you are unquestionably the victor of this election, that does not change the fact that more than half the country voted for someone else.\u00a0 Your task at hand is to reach out to, not alienate,\u00a0those Americans.\u00a0\r\n\u201cInstead, we\u2019re already hearing talk of plans to privatize Social Security, to raise the Medicare retirement age, to give huge handouts to Wall Street at the expense of the middle class, and to roll back laws that safeguard our air and water and protect American consumers.\u00a0 That is far from the compromise and cooperation we need at this difficult time.\u00a0\r\n\u201cThere are areas where we can work together.\u00a0This can only happen if you retract your false statements and commit to rebuilding our democracy \u2013 not tearing it down.\u201d\r\nFull text of the letter is below and available here.\r\nNovember 29, 2016\r\n\r\nPresident-elect Donald Trump\r\nTrump-Pence Transition Team\r\n1717 Pennsylvania Ave NW\r\nWashington, DC 20006\r\n\r\nDear President-Elect Trump,\r\n\r\nI was encouraged by your tone shortly after the election when you said you wanted to be a President for \u2018all Americans.\u2019 Unfortunately, your words and actions since then have too often undermined our ability to bring the country together and move forward. \u00a0\r\n\r\nAs Secretary of State of Ohio for eight years, I know there are few things more important than the integrity of our electoral system. Your choice to spread false conspiracy theories and to claim millions of fraudulent votes is not only unbecoming of a gracious winner, it is downright dangerous to our democracy. \u00a0\r\n\r\nThere is no evidence \u2013 zero \u2013 of any large-scale voter fraud in the United States. Not in this election and not in any presidential election in recent memory.\r\n\r\nPeddling this nonsense and stoking these fears undermine our system of government \u2013 and your own election, damaging the public\u2019s faith in our democracy. You won the Electoral College. That is a fact, and you are the President-elect. It is also a fact, however, that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes.\r\n\r\nHillary Clinton\u2019s popular vote victory margin is larger than John Kennedy\u2019s over Richard Nixon, it's larger than Richard Nixon\u2019s over Hubert Humphrey, and it\u2019s larger than Jimmy Carter\u2019s over Gerald Ford. This was far from a landslide victory, and the only way to bring the country together and move forward is to reach across the aisle and work together.\r\n\r\nNow is the time to reach out to the majority of Americans who voted for someone else and unite Americans based on our nation's shared values.\r\n\r\nInstead, we\u2019re already hearing talk of plans to privatize Social Security, to raise the Medicare retirement age, to give huge handouts to Wall Street at the expense of the middle class, and to roll back laws that safeguard our air and water and protect American consumers. That is far from the compromise and cooperation we need at this difficult time.\r\n\r\nAs public servants, our job is to represent everyone we serve \u2013 not only those who voted for us: it\u2019s the job we signed up for.\r\n\r\nWhile you are the victor in this election, that does not change the fact that more than half the country voted for someone else. Your task at hand is to reach out to, not alienate, those Americans.\u00a0\r\n\r\nThere are areas where we can work together: I\u2019ve already spoken with the head of your transition for trade policy. We talked about ways we can overhaul our trade agenda to put American workers first. I know many of my colleagues have expressed a willingness to work across the aisle on the infrastructure investments we need.\r\n\r\nThis can only happen if you retract your false statements and commit to rebuilding our democracy \u2013 not tearing it down. \u00a0\r\n\r\nThank you for your consideration of this matter.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\u00a0\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPress Contact\n\t\t\t\t\tJenny Donohue/Rachel Petri \r\n202-224-3978", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-to-trump-retract-voter-fraud-lie-rebuild-democracy-dont-tear-it-down"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.791511895135045, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}