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

In his three-hour question and reply pinch podcaster Joe Rogan, Donald Trump dug successful connected his false claims astir voting, predetermination fraud and his nonaccomplishment successful nan 2020 statesmanlike election. Rogan helped promote immoderate of these claims.

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

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

Trump did suffer nan 2020 election

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “I won by for illustration — they opportunity I mislaid by for illustration — I didn’t lose.”

THE FACTS: Trump did suffer successful 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s claims that fraud costs him nan title were investigated repeatedly.

Trump’s ain attorney general said location were nary signs of important fraud. The Republican-run authorities Senate successful Michigan, 1 of nan plaything states wherever Trump claimed fraud occurred, came to nan aforesaid conclusion aft a lengthy investigation. An investigation by nan nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau successful Wisconsin, ordered by nan 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 nan 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 support successful nan Electoral College to stay president.

Trump misstated that separator arsenic 22,000 votes.

Judges ruled against Trump connected nan merits repeatedly

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “What happened is judges don’t want to touch it. They would say, ‘you don’t person standing.’ They didn’t norm connected nan merits.”

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

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

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

Almost each authorities already uses insubstantial ballots

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

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

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

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

The only authorities not to usage a voting strategy pinch insubstantial ballots aliases a insubstantial way of immoderate benignant is Republican-run Louisiana.

Republicans and Democrats encouraged message voting during nan 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 nan coronavirus pandemic to make message voting much celebrated and that nan conspirators past rigged nan predetermination against him done those message votes. That’s not what happened.

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

In doing so, Trump was returning to his accustomed playbook, claiming that immoderate predetermination he doesn’t triumph is fraudulent. He made that declare astir nan first title he lost, Iowa’s 2016 Republican caucus. He moreover claimed he mislaid nan celebrated ballot successful 2016 because of voting by forbidden immigrants, though a statesmanlike committee he empaneled to find grounds of it disbanded without uncovering immoderate proof.

The 2020 predetermination was free of important fraud

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