Trump repeated election lies in his interview with Joe Rogan. Here are the facts

In his three-hour interrogation with podcaster Joe Rogan, Donald Trump dug successful connected his mendacious claims astir voting, predetermination fraud and his nonaccomplishment successful the 2020 statesmanlike election. Rogan helped promote immoderate of these claims.

The interview, released precocious Friday, came connected the aforesaid time that the erstwhile president, connected his societal media network, re-posted threats to prosecute lawyers, voters and predetermination officials helium deems to person “cheated” successful the 2024 election.

Here’s a look astatine immoderate of the claims by the Republican nominee for president and the truth.

Trump did suffer the 2020 election

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “I won by similar — they accidental I mislaid by similar — I didn’t lose.”

THE FACTS: Trump did suffer successful 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s claims that fraud outgo him the contention were investigated repeatedly.

Trump’s ain lawyer wide said determination were nary signs of important fraud. The Republican-run authorities Senate successful Michigan, 1 of the plaything states wherever Trump claimed fraud occurred, came to the aforesaid decision aft a lengthy investigation. An probe by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau successful Wisconsin, ordered by the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature successful different authorities Trump claimed to person been defrauded from winning, besides recovered nary important fraud.

Rogan chortled erstwhile Trump was arguing, correctly, that his nonaccomplishment was close. Trump mislaid the predetermination narrowly successful six plaything states. If astir 81,000 votes had flipped, Trump could person won Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin and gotten capable enactment successful the Electoral College to stay president.

Trump misstated that borderline arsenic 22,000 votes.

Judges ruled against Trump connected the merits repeatedly

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “What happened is judges don’t privation to interaction it. They would say, ‘you don’t person standing.’ They didn’t regularisation connected the merits.”

THE FACTS: That’s not true. Trump and his supporters mislaid much than 50 lawsuits trying to overturn the election.

A radical of Republican-affiliated predetermination lawyers and ineligible scholars reviewed each 64 of the Trump lawsuits challenging the 2020 predetermination and recovered lone 20 of them were dismissed by judges earlier a proceeding connected the merits. In 30 cases, the rulings against Trump came aft hearings connected the merits.

In the remaining 14 cases, the study for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution found, Trump and his allies dropped their lawsuits earlier they adjacent got to the merits phase. “In galore cases, aft making extravagant claims of wrongdoing, Trump’s ineligible representatives showed up successful tribunal oregon authorities proceedings empty-handed, and past returned to their rallies and media campaigns to repetition the aforesaid unsupported claims,” the study states.

Almost each authorities already uses insubstantial ballots

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WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We should spell to insubstantial ballots.”

THE FACTS: Trump and Rogan some argued that voting machines are unreliable and that the United States should trust connected insubstantial ballots. Trump adjacent cited his billionaire tech mogul protagonist Elon Musk’s enthusiasm for specified a change.

Almost each of the state already made that switch, however.

In 2020, much than 90% of the predetermination jurisdictions successful the U.S. utilized insubstantial ballots, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The adjacent year, the national Election Assistance Commission changed its guidelines to urge each jurisdiction usage paper.

The lone authorities not to usage a voting strategy with insubstantial ballots oregon a insubstantial way of immoderate benignant is Republican-run Louisiana.

Republicans and Democrats encouraged message voting during the pandemic

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “They utilized COVID to cheat.”

THE FACTS: Trump’s cardinal statement is that a expansive Democratic conspiracy changed voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic to marque message voting much fashionable and that the conspirators past rigged the predetermination against him done those message votes. That’s not what happened.

When the pandemic archetypal deed during the 2020 statesmanlike superior successful March, Republican and Democratic predetermination officials rapidly switched to promote message voting to debar crowded polls. This was comparatively uncontroversial until Trump turned against it, claiming it would laic the seeds for imaginable fraud.

In doing so, Trump was returning to his accustomed playbook, claiming that immoderate predetermination helium doesn’t triumph is fraudulent. He made that assertion astir the archetypal contention helium lost, Iowa’s 2016 Republican caucus. He adjacent claimed helium mislaid the fashionable ballot successful 2016 due to the fact that of voting by amerciable immigrants, though a statesmanlike committee helium empaneled to find grounds of it disbanded without uncovering immoderate proof.

The 2020 predetermination was escaped of important fraud

THE FACTS: Isolated cases of voters fraud person agelong occurred, but successful modern times person not reached the levels needed to sway a nationalist election. An Associated Press reappraisal recovered less than 475 cases successful each six battleground states that Trump mislaid by much than a combined 300,000 votes — acold excessively small to alteration the outcome.