In a three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan — a dialog that lasted even longer than one among Donald Trump’s rally speeches — the previous president repeated falsehoods in regards to the final result of the 2020 election.
The dialog got here lower than two weeks earlier than Election Day and ranged from claims about life on Mars to unlawful immigration to his plan to impose tariffs on on a regular basis items.
Right here we’ll fact-check what Trump stated in regards to the 2020 election.
“I gained that second election” in 2020.
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Joe Biden earned his victory by successful extra votes within the Electoral School. Biden obtained 306 electoral votes in contrast with Trump’s 232. Biden’s path to victory included the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Though the favored vote does not decide who wins presidential elections, Biden obtained about 7 million extra votes nationwide than Trump.
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The 2020 election’s final result was verified in a number of methods: States licensed the outcomes. Trump and his allies misplaced greater than 60 lawsuits. Congress accepted the outcomes, after Trump supporters’ violent riot on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A bunch of conservatives, together with former federal judges, examined each fraud and miscount declare by Trump and his allies and concluded that they “didn’t current proof of fraud or inaccurate outcomes vital sufficient to invalidate the outcomes.”
Republicans in Trump’s personal administration, together with his then-attorney basic, Invoice Barr, advised Trump his statements in regards to the “stolen” election had been “bull—-.” Republican state election officers, together with in Georgia, stated that the election was safe and that Biden gained.
PolitiFact has documented some examples of voter fraud in 2020, comparable to individuals casting votes on lifeless kin’ behalf. However these situations weren’t sufficient to alter the race’s final result.
States used “COVID to cheat” within the 2020 election.
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Many states made voting simpler through the pandemic by mailing a poll or an utility to obtain a poll to registered voters. Some states that beforehand required voters to have an excuse to vote by mail loosened that rule.
Trump is free to disagree with these adjustments, however he’s mistaken — and ridiculously so — to characterize them as dishonest. These adjustments had been made brazenly, via govt orders, administrative actions or legislation. And when a state expanded entry to voting by mail, that was obtainable to Republican voters, too.
States “had been presupposed to get legislative approval to do the issues they did,” comparable to altering the foundations for mail voting.
Rejecting a Trump argument in lawsuits over the 2020 election outcomes, varied courts dominated that states do not need to run each election coverage via the legislature; as an alternative, if needed, state officers can act on their very own.
Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton, for example, sued 4 battleground states that went for Biden, arguing that their election procedures violated their states’ legal guidelines. In a one-page ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court docket declined to listen to the lawsuit, concluding that Texas had no enterprise difficult the best way different states conduct elections.
Consultants stated altering election guidelines with out passing laws is widespread.
“It’s typically the case that there are gaps in election statutes that state and native election officers routinely fill in accordance with their delegated authority,” stated Rebecca Inexperienced, an election legislation professor on the School of William & Mary. “So to say that every one selections about how elections are run should emanate from the legislature is just not in line with specific delegated authority to state election officers.”
Adjustments made with out formal sign-off by legislatures had been made not solely in Democratic or battleground states, but in addition by Republican officers in solidly pro-Trump states.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum issued an order in March 2020 suspending the requirement that every county function at the least one in-person polling place for counties that accepted voting by mail.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued an govt order permitting issues about COVID-19 to be a legitimate excuse to vote by absentee for the November 2020 election.
In Paxton’s state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott added further days of early voting for the final election, citing challenges posed by the pandemic.
After Hurricane Michael hit north Florida in October 2018, then-Gov. Rick Scott cited emergency legal guidelines in his order to raise some guidelines associated to mail ballots and in-person voting.
“If you happen to check out Wisconsin, they just about admitted that the election was rigged, robbed and stolen.”
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Trump requested recounts in Wisconsin, however these recounts upheld Biden’s victory; Biden gained a web 74 votes when the recount was full. The state licensed Biden’s victory.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court docket rejected a lawsuit looking for to ban absentee poll drop bins, concluding that the problems weren’t “cleanly offered.”
A probe led by former state Supreme Court docket Justice Michael Gableman — who has aligned with Trump and promoted his false claims — turned up no proof the election was incorrectly known as.
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Legislation & Liberty additionally discovered no proof of widespread fraud. And state auditors discovered voting machines labored correctly.
PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.
