In a three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan — a dialog that lasted even longer than one in all Donald Trump’s rally speeches — the previous president repeated falsehoods concerning 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 concerning the 2020 election.
Joe Biden earned his victory by successful extra votes within the Electoral Faculty. Biden received 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 doesn’t decide who wins presidential elections, Biden acquired about 7 million extra votes nationwide than Trump.
The 2020 election’s final result was verified in a number of methods: States licensed the outcomes. Trump and his allies misplaced more 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 normal, Bill Barr, advised Trump his statements concerning the “stolen” election have been “bull—-.” Republican state election officials, together with in Georgia, stated that the election was safe and that Biden received.
PolitiFact has documented some examples of voter fraud in 2020, comparable to folks casting votes on lifeless family members’ behalf. However these situations weren’t sufficient to vary the race’s final result.
Many states made voting simpler throughout 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 improper — and ridiculously so — to characterize them as dishonest. These adjustments have been made overtly, by govt orders, administrative actions or legislation. And when a state expanded entry to voting by mail, that was accessible to Republican voters, too.
Rejecting a Trump argument in lawsuits over the 2020 election outcomes, various courts ruled that states wouldn’t have to run each election coverage by the legislature; as an alternative, if needed, state officers can act on their very own.
Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton, as an example, sued four 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 Courtroom declined to listen to the lawsuit, concluding that Texas had no enterprise difficult the best way different states conduct elections.
Specialists stated altering election guidelines with out passing laws is frequent.
“It’s usually the case that there are gaps in election statutes that state and native election officers routinely fill based on their delegated authority,” stated Rebecca Inexperienced, an election legislation professor on the Faculty of William & Mary. “So to say that each one choices about how elections are run should emanate from the legislature is just not in keeping with express delegated authority to state election officers.”
Modifications made with out formal sign-off by legislatures have 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 a minimum of one in-person polling place for counties that permitted voting by mail.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued an executive order permitting issues about COVID-19 to be a sound 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 elevate some guidelines associated to mail ballots and in-person voting.
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 rejected a lawsuit searching for to ban absentee poll drop packing containers, concluding that the problems weren’t “cleanly offered.”
A probe led by former state Supreme Courtroom Justice Michael Gableman — who has aligned with Trump and promoted his false claims — turned up no evidence the election was incorrectly referred to as.
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Regulation & Liberty additionally found no evidence of widespread fraud. And state auditors found voting machines labored correctly.
PolitiFact senior correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.
This truth examine was initially published by PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute.
