Do Republicans Support the Truth or Donald Trump?

Most Republicans running for office in the US midterms are claiming that Donald Trump won the US 2020 presidential election, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And many other Republicans who may not believe that big lie are supporting politicians who do. Trump constantly repeats his assertion that he won the election and polls indicate that about 70 percent of Republicans believe him.

      Democrats running for office can gain significantly by asking their opponents whether or not they believe that Trump won by a landslide, as he has often claimed. Their responses would alienate either hard core Trump supporters or moderate and independent voters, greatly increasing the chances for Democratic victories. 

      There are at least five important factors that disprove the argument that Trump was really victorious in 2020.

1. Pre-election polls consistently showed Joe Biden with substantial leads. An average of nine major polls just before the election showed Biden leading by eight percent (51 – 43). Polls conducted by conservative Fox News showed Biden leading by as much as nine percent. So, Trump actually did far better than polls projected, since the actual vote had Biden ahead by only about four percent.

     The congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol was told that, based on these polls and internal Republican polling, the lead data person with the Republican campaign told Trump in “blunt terms that he was going to lose.”

2. Appeals by Trump and his supporters to overturn election results were turned down by 61 courts, many with conservative judges, several appointed by President Trump.  Some judges, including Trump appointees, noted that there was no evidence of fraudulently cast votes.

     Judge Matthew Brann, a conservative US District jurist in Pennsylvania, dismissed the Trump campaign’s appeal, stating: “One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations.” In response to one of the Trump campaign assertions, he said, “This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.”     Also, the US Supreme Court, with its 6 – 3 conservative majority and three judges appointed by Trump,  twice rejected Republican appeals.

3. The same ballots that Trump and his supporters say involved fraud resulted in major victories for Republicans in congressional and gubernatorial races, surprising many survey researchers and Republican political operatives.

4. Many key Republicans and independent organizations expressed their belief that Biden won in a very fair election. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its partners, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. . . There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

     Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican said, ”Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election – nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence,” 

     Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr told Trump that he did not agree with calling the election “stolen” and that his allegations about voting machine fraud were “nonsense.”

     Despite additional evidence that President Donald Trump’s advisers told him directly that he had lost the election, Trump still promoted falsehoods that the election was “rigged.” 

5. Audits and recounts in battleground states, including Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin found no evidence of wrongdoing and affirmed Biden’s win.

     After contacting  over 300 local election offices as well as state officials, The Associated Press found less than 475 voter potential fraud cases in six battleground states, representing only 0.15% of Biden’s victory margin in those states. This is far less than enough to affect any election outcomes.

     In addition, the top U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.

     It should be noted that at one point, Trump admitted that he lost the election. In a phone interview with Fox News Sean Hannity, he said: “Shockingly, we were supposed to win easily at 64 million votes, and we got 75 million votes, and we didn’t win,

    So, once again, every Republican candidate should be asked, especially in debates, if they believe that Trump actually won the election. If they respond that they believe the Big Lie, they should be asked how they respond to the points raised above.

     Voters should also be asked if they refer politicians who support the truth or support Donald Trump. They can be reminded that, according to the Washington Post fact checker, Trump told over 30,000 lies or misrepresentations during his administration.

    It is very important that Republicans not gain from their efforts to mislead the American people about the 2020 election and to use their false claims of fraud to prevent certain groups from voting and undermine democracy in other ways in order to regain power. Otherwise, they will be encouraged to continue using such tactics, with many very negative consequences for the American people.

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