Trump is using election lies to lay the groundwork for challenging the 2024 results if he loses.

Latest update:November 02, 2024 04:25 PM IST

Trump has made election lies a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign, feverishly warning of fraud while vowing revenge on people he believes stand in his way.

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally at the Greensboro Coliseum. (AP photo)

Donald Trump has spent months laying the groundwork to challenge the 2024 election results if he loses, just as he did four years ago.

At rally after rally, he urges his supporters to win a victory “too big to falsify,” telling them the only way they can lose is if the Democrats cheat. He has repeatedly refused to say whether he would accept the results regardless. And he has said that fraud is already occurring, citing debunked claims or outrageous theories that have no basis in fact.

“The only thing that can stop us is fraud. This is the only thing that can stop us,” he said at an event in Arizona late Thursday.

In 2020, Trump prematurely declared victory in the White House. He mounted legal and political efforts to overturn his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by his supporters.

Democrats fear he could do the same this year before the election is called. On Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, he did not answer a question about those Democratic concerns, instead moving on to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has made election lies a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign, feverishly warning of fraud while vowing revenge on people he believes stand in his way.

This year, he is supported by a sophisticated election integrity operation orchestrated by his campaign and the Republican National Committee, which has already filed more than 130 lawsuits and recruited more than 230,000 volunteers who are being trained to serve as election observers and poll workers. throughout the region. country on election day.

Here’s a look at Trump’s strategy to sow doubt in this year’s election and the facts behind each claim.

CLAIM: Trump claimed, without evidence, that Democrats allowed millions of migrants to enter the country illegally so they could be registered to vote. In a September interview with Newsmax, Trump said such efforts were already underway.

“They are working overtime trying to illegally sign people up to vote in elections,” he said. “They’re working overtime to sign people up and register people – a lot of the same people you just see coming across the border. this is probably their initial thought, because otherwise why would they want to destroy our country?”

THE FACTS: Newcomers take years to become citizens, and only citizens can legally vote in federal elections. Isolated cases in which noncitizens have been caught attempting to vote—such as the University of Michigan student from China arrested on charges of illegal voting—do not reflect a larger conspiracy.

Studies have shown that illegal registration and voting by non-citizens is extremely rare and is usually done by mistake.

CLAIM: Trump pointed to Democratic efforts to secure votes for Americans living abroad as another opportunity for fraud. He claims that they are “preparing to deceive!” and “want to weaken the TRUE voices of our wonderful military and their families.”

THE FACTS: The former president himself campaigned for American votes abroad, promising to end so-called “double taxation” for people who frequently pay taxes to the country where they live as well as to the U.S. government.

CLAIM: Trump has begun to suggest that Harris may have access to some classified inside information about the outcome of the yet-to-be-decided race.

As the vice president took the day off to do interviews with Telemundo and NBC, he repeatedly suggested, “Maybe she knows something we don’t know.”

Last weekend in Michigan, he suggested that Harris would never have campaigned alongside Beyoncé – one of the world’s biggest stars – if the race was truly as close as polls suggest.

“First of all, they cheat like hell. So maybe they know something we don’t, right? thought about it – maybe she knows something that we don’t know, but we won’t let that happen.”

THE FACTS: There is no evidence to support a Democratic conspiracy. Indeed, Trump fanned fears about his own domestic plans at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden when he looked at House Speaker Mike Johnson and revealed a “little secret” they had.

Johnson, before becoming speaker, took the lead in drafting a widely criticized document seeking to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat and repeated some of the wildest conspiracy theories to explain his defeat.

When asked about Trump’s reference to a “little secret,” Johnson issued a statement saying, “By definition, a secret cannot be shared—and I have no intention of sharing it.” (He later told the audience that this was due to “one of our get-out-the-vote tactics,” according to The Hill. Trump’s campaign released a statement noting that he had “held countless televised rallies” to support Republicans in Congress ). candidates.)

CLAIM: Trump has turned his ire in recent days to Pennsylvania, a state that both campaigns consider critical and where he says fraud is already happening.

Earlier this week, he said York County, Pennsylvania, “received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications from a third-party group.” 2600 fake ballots and forms written by the same person. Really bad “stuff”.

During a campaign event in Allentown on Tuesday, the former president said: “They’ve already started cheating in Lancaster. They cheated. We caught them with 2600 votes. No, we took them by surprise. 2600 votes. Think about it, think about it. And every voice was written by the same person.”

THE FACTS: In Lancaster, County District Attorney Heather Adams, an elected Republican, said election officials raised concerns about two sets of voter registration applications because of what she called numerous similarities. Officials are currently checking a total of about 2,500 forms.

To be clear, Lancaster is looking at voter registration applications, not “votes.” Lancaster officials said some of the forms contained fictitious names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses or other questionable details, but did not say they were all written by the same person. Human.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monsky confirmed this week that his county is reviewing the suspect document forms. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications were among a “large shipment containing thousands of election-related materials” the county board of elections received from an outside organization.

State officials say the discovery and investigation of allegations, not votes, is evidence that the system is working as it should.

CLAIM: Trump has threatened severe consequences for those who engage in what he considers “dishonest conduct.”

In one social media post that falsely cited “the rampant fraud and fraud that occurred by Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election,” he warned that “WHEN I WIN, those people who CHEATED will be held accountable for with all rigor.” A law that will include long prison sentences.”

The posts continue to threaten “those involved in dishonest conduct,” including election officials, lawyers and donors, who he said “will be sought, caught and prosecuted at a level that has unfortunately never been seen before.” in our country.”

THE FACTS: Judges, election officials and even Trump’s Attorney General William Barr have confirmed there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

If elected again, Trump vowed to pursue rivals he considered “enemies within,” including saying he would appoint a special prosecutor to prosecute Biden. This is more than a theoretical threat, given that while he was president, Trump repeatedly pushed for investigations of alleged political opponents.

Although the Justice Department has checks to prevent political influence, Trump can appoint executives who will help open cases at his direction.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news feed – Associated Press)

Location :

New York, United States of America (USA)