The White House is sticking with Donald Trump's blatant lie about millions of illegal votes

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who’s quickly building a reputation for repeating his boss’ lies in press briefings, refused to dismiss the blatantly false notion that up to five million people voted illegally in the presidential election, thus tilting the popular vote against Donald Trump.

Responding to a question whether Trump really believes some 3 to 5 million people voting illegally cost him the popular vote, as he reportedly told congressional Republicans on Monday, Spicer said the president believes that astronomical statistic “based on studies and evidence people have presented to him.”

“It’s a belief he’s maintained,” Spicer told reporters. When pressed for specifics on those “studies and evidence,” the press secretary cited a 2008 Pew study which he said found “14% of people who voted are non-citizens.”

As a fact check from during the campaign–where Trump made hand-wringing about voter fraud a frequent topic at rallies–points out, Trump misconstrued Pew’s finding that 1.8 million dead people were still on the voting rolls (evidence that the country needs to upgrade its systems for registering voters) with actual votes. Researchers reviewing a different study which found that 14% of non-citizens were registered to vote (not that they actually did vote) dismissed it as riddled with errors. Elsewhere, allegations of widespread voter fraud have been debunked again and again and again.

Multiple journalists followed up to ask if Trump, apparently convinced that unprecedented voter fraud transpired, would launch a full investigation into the matter.

“He won very handily. He’s very comfortable with his win,” Spicer responded. “As I’ve noted several times, he won fairly and [overwhelmingly].” He did not address the question of how Trump could have won “fairly” if voter fraud had been a dominant electoral force.

Asked again about whether an investigation is possible, Spicer comfortingly replied: “Anything is possible.”

Watch a clip of Spicer pushing Trump’s debunked claims about voter fraud below, via MSNBC:

White House press secretary says President Trump believes millions voted illegally “based on studies & evidence”

There is no evidence. Zero pic.twitter.com/x6tRV9HTQf

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 24, 2017