Donald Trump has recently ramped up controversy by claiming the race between him and Hillary Clinton “looks like a rigged election,” and that this theft is occurring “at many polling places.” Indeed, “rigged” has become a recurring campaign theme for him.

Trump, not much of a stickler for details, leaves the parameters of what constitutes a “rigged election” largely undefined, making references to millions of dead people on voter registration rolls, Philadelphia precincts in 2012 where not a single vote for Romney was recorded, etc.

Trump is both right and wrong, depending on how you define “rigged.” If he is referring to, as some have asserted, a nefarious cabal with the power to manipulate voting machines nationwide and change the digital ones and zeros of electronic ballots in order to switch a Trump vote to a Hillary vote, then no, there is no evidence that’s happening. (The Leftmedia gleefully runs “fact checks” on this at every opportunity.) There is no universal election system in the United States. Every state has its own election rules, and its own system. Some use paper ballots (with or without optical scan), others use Direct Recording Electronic systems. Voting machines are tested before and after the election, and inaccuracies investigated. In short, while fraud does occur, the system is too decentralized for widespread manipulation of voting machines.

On the other hand, there is a reason why so many people joke about how Democrats “vote early and vote often.” Democrats are vociferously opposed to any and all attempts to guarantee ballot integrity. They oppose laws requiring voters to present identification at polling places, claiming such laws are racist and discriminatory. Odd, then, that these same people are not outraged that these same would-be voters are required to show ID to open a checking account, get married, rent a hotel room, purchase alcohol, enter a government building, or — and no, we’re not making this up — to march in a Democrat protest of voter ID laws.

Yet undercover videos prove fairly convincingly that not only is voter fraud a real problem, but it is a problem that Democrats encourage because voter fraud significantly benefits Democrats. Alan Schulkin, a Democrat Elections Commissioner in NYC, admits as much in an undercover video, stating, “There is a lot of fraud. … The law says you can’t ask for [ID], which they really should be able to do.” Project Veritas and others have done outstanding work on exposing the ease with which voter fraud is committed, yet Democrats still fight tooth and nail to preserve it.

In 2013, New York City’s Department of Investigation sent undercover agents into 63 polling places, posing as people who were in fact dead, incarcerated, or no longer residents, and a whopping 97% of them were allowed to vote. This type of fraud can, and has, swung close elections throughout the country. One example is the 2008 Minnesota Senate Race which was “won” by comedian Al Franken after three recounts took Republican Norm Coleman from a 725-vote lead on Election Day, to a 312-vote loss six months later. A subsequent investigation found that 1,099 felons, ineligible to vote, cast ballots. Of those, over 90% cast ballots for Franken, who then became the 60th Democrat vote in the Senate, blocking the ability of Republicans to filibuster the ObamaCare bill.

Leftist agitators also appear to be coordinating. A key Clinton campaign operative bringing protesters to Trump rallies just happened to have visited the White House 342 times since 2009.

Another aspect of the claim of “rigging” is the impact of a leftist mainstream media that operates essentially as a super PAC for Democrats. The Leftmedia has abandoned all pretense of objectivity and is waging an all-out assault on Donald Trump. CNN’s Chris Cuomo was more open about it than most, admitting, “We couldn’t help Hillary any more than we have. I mean, she’s just gotten a free ride so far from the media. We’re the biggest ones promoting her campaign.”

Other media figures have openly called for “journalists” to destroy Trump. That is why they obsess over Trump’s vile comments from 11 years ago, but give Hillary a free pass regarding her cover-up of her husband’s serial rapes and sexual assaults, even going so far as to attack the victims. Not to mention her email scandals, Benghazi, pay-to-play at the Clinton Foundation, etc.

It should come as no surprise to any objective person to discover that 96% of all campaign contributions from journalists, reporters, news editors, or TV news anchors — as shown in FEC filings — went to Democrats.

Of course, it is a bit disingenuous for Trump to now complain of a biased media. After all, he benefited during the primaries from an eye-popping $2 billion in free media, making it nearly impossible for any other candidate to gain any traction or be heard in the tsunami of Trump coverage.

That’s hugely significant now, because, as Greg Gutfeld of Fox News declared with exasperation, “True, the media is rigged, but it was rigged for Trump all damn year. He got more free media than the weather. … If it wasn’t for the media who fell over Trump every time he sneezed we would have a different candidate. So, yeah, it was rigged and that rigging gave us Trump. He should be extremely grateful. … Of course now he gets the same coverage but it’s soaked in opposition research. Was he set up? Could it be the media propelled him to the top of the heap knowing he would be easy to bring down later? Short answer, yes; long answer, hell yes.”

But Trump isn’t exactly the first candidate to complain of rigging. “They’ll do anything to rig the system,” complained Barack Obama. “The game is rigged,” griped Elizabeth Warren. We live in “a rigged economy,” asserted Bernie Sanders. “People say the game is rigged,” said none other than Hillary Clinton. Only when a Republican complains about it do Democrats head for the fainting couch.

Finally, the biggest rigging occurred with the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton. If the State Department, attorney general, FBI director and even the president himself hadn’t put their thumbs on the scales — or even if Clinton had a different surname — she’d be in prison, not running for president. And if just about any other Republican was running, Clinton would be on her way to defeat because of the obvious corruption.

So, long story short, the election is rigged … sort of. Trump is right to a point, but, as a terrible candidate running a pitiful campaign, he’s also setting up an awfully convenient scapegoat.