CNN anchor Jake Tapper tore President Donald Trump’s false claims that 3-5 million illegal votes were cast in the election after he repeated the claims to congressional leaders Monday.

“President Trump is claiming, and the White House is reaffirming, the fiction that millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election,” Tapper said in his show’s opening Tuesday.

“It is empirically a stunning allegation for which the White House is providing no evidence.”

“And there is a reason they are providing no evidence: there is no evidence. It is not true.”

Noting that even White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer would not say he shares the belief, Tapper pointed out that if there was an iota of truth to Trump’s comment he should launch an investigation into the alleged rampant fraud.

“If there was even a fraction of the voter fraud that President Trump is alleging, he would be derelict not to order a major investigation and it would likely require a vast conspiracy involving public officials all over the country and would likely have had far-reaching impact in other contests – tainting races down the ballot, not just the presidential race,” Tapper said.

“If President Trump’s beliefs are true, Republican leaders in Congress should be holding hearings and trumpeting this injustice every single day.”

“His Justice Department, his Department of Homeland Security – all of them would need to crack down immediately.”

“Unless,” he added, “it’s not even remotely true. Which is, of course, the case.”

Tapper is right, if over three million illegal votes were cast, it would mean the collapse of American democracy.

Trump, of course, will not investigate his own beliefs as they are clearly predicated on giving him an excuse for losing the popular vote by three million, which is why the number of illegal votes keeps going up every time Trump cites his claim.

There will always be (at least) three aspects to any of Trump babblings... (courtesy of Tony Schwartz)

1. They will have an utter disregard for the truth and an air of a lack of conscience about that fact. Any correlation with the truth will be coincidental.
2. They will be driven entirely by what Trump would perceive as his immediate self interest.
3. Even when patently false, their repetition over time will betray Trump's inability to ever admit that he is wrong about anything.