Elections Reality Project
Although New Statecraft Institute is avowedly moderate and strenuously opposes toxic partisanship, we are equally committed to enhancing legitimacy and trust in government institutions and ensuring that accurate information empowers a truthfully informed democratic process.
The 2024 election subjected every American voter to a scale of deception unprecedented in our nation's history, with President Trump alleging that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him via massive fraud. The Institute set forth to compellingly refute this remarkably destructive disinformation campaign.
In the years between the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, the Institute assembled and published an authoritative compendium of public statements by the most broadly respected individuals and organizations across the ideological spectrum attacking the lie: elected officials, leaders from public policy institutes, journalists, academics, and verifiers from the states and counties where Trump alleges that fraud was perpetrated. It deliberately includes a large number of those with conservative or Republican backgrounds.
Amazingly, Trump continues to peddle the monstrous lie that American elections are fraudulent. This lie remains remarkably persuasive: barely half of independents and only 18% of Republicans agree that Joe Biden won the presidency legitimately (e.g., SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, November 2025). Unfortunately combatting Trump's dishonesty regarding elections remains a problem of overarching importance in determining whether truth or disinformation will prevail in American democracy and around the world.
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A message to prospective donors: establishing the Elections Reality Project as the definitive resource on the subject looms large in better securing the future of democracy in America and worldwide.
The Institute seeks to expand the power of the Elections Reality Project in American politics in four distinct ways. First, a modest amount of additional funding would enable the inclusion of further corroboration by leading publications from around the world, which are virtually unanimous in their repudiation of Trump’s election fraud lies.
Second, additional funding could enable more robust documentation from presidential and senatorial swing-seat races — creating a new database devoted just to PA or WI, for example — to educate these pivotal voter bases. Innumerable state and local officials from both parties have helped to set the record straight and are particularly persuasive for voters who may live just down the street from these leaders.
Third, the Institute’s in-house list of truth-tellers is even longer than the published list below, and we hope to refine and expand the published list accordingly.
Fourth and finally, additional funding would also enable inclusion of the original video or audio recordings currently cited in the database, for maximum impact on potential voters.
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The Elections Reality Project definitively establishes that the outcome of the 2020 American presidential election was not determined by fraud. Immediately below is an excerpted sample of individuals and organizations (listed by category) who have admirably rebutted the lie. Following that is a much longer alphabetical list of verbatim public statements by admired individuals and organizations from across the political spectrum, which can be downloaded as a PDF here.
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TRUMP STAFF & ADVISORS
Steve Bannon, William Barr, John Bolton, Ty Cobb, Kellyanne Conway, Richard Donaghue, Jenna Ellis, Mark Esper, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Stephanie Grisham, Alina Habba, Eric Herschman, Cassidy Hutchinson, Gen. John Kelly (ret.), Chris Krebs, Ronna McDaniel, Gen. H.R. McMaster (ret.), Mark Meadows, Gen. Mark Millley (ret.), Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pence, Sidney Powell, Dan Scavino, Bill Stepien, Ivanka Trump, John Yoo
REPUBLICAN OFFICIALS
John Boehner, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Michael Chertoff, Chris Christie, Dan Coates, Wiliam Cohen, John Cornyn, Tom Cotton, John Danforth, Ron Desantis, Mike Dewine, Bob Dole, Geoff Duncan, Jeff Flake, Ari Fleischer, Lindsey Graham, Charles Grassley, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Jim Jordan, Brian Kemp, Mitch McConnell, Rob Portman, Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge, Paul Ryan, Ben Sasse. Tim Scott, John Thune, Pat Toomey
REPUBLICAN INFLUENCERS
Whit Ayres, Guy Benson, Arthur Brooks, John Fund, Ben Ginsberg, Victor David Hanson, Yuval Levin, Frank Luntz, Andy McCarthy, Michael Mukasey, Rupert Murdoch, Peggy Noonan, Henry Olsen, Ramesh Ponnuru, Karl Rove, Jonathan Turley, Peter Wehner
JOURNALISTS & PUNDITS
Bret Baier, Peter Baker, Dan Baltz, Max Boot, David Brooks, Ron Brownstein, Neil Cavuto, Mona Charen, Charlie Cook, Robert Costa, Steve Doocy, David Drucker, David Frum, David Gergen, Paul Gigot, Susan Glasser, Jeffrey Goldberg, Jonah Goldberg, Sean Hannity, Margaret Hoover, David Ignatius, Brian Kilmeade, Howie Kurtz, Martha MacCallum, Chad Pergram, Jennifer Rubin, Gerald Seib, Cal Thomas, Jonathan Turley, Amy Walter, Judy Woodruff, Bob Woodward, Byron York, Fareed Zakaria
MEDIA OUTLETS & INSTITUTIONS
60 Minutes, Associated Press, BBC, Center for Democracy and Technology, The Cook Political Report, The Economist, Facebook, The Fact Checker, Fox News, National Academy of Sciences, National Council on Election Integrity, National Review, New York Post, Time Magazine, True the Vote, Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, Washington Times, Yahoo.com
ALL FOUR LIVING EX-PRESIDENTS
George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama
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THE ELECTIONS REALITY PROJECT:
PUBLIC STATEMENTS BY VERIFIERS
A
Gary Abernathy, Columnist, The Washington Post
• Trump’s false claims of election fraud “disqualified him from the presidency.” PBS NewsHour, 20 September 2021.
Tim Alberta, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
• “And you might ask yourself: ‘Do they really believe this?’ And the answer, in almost every single case, is ‘No.’ They don’t believe it.” Frontline on PBS, 7 September 2022.
Yamiche Alcindor, Host, Washington Week; Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
• “Former President Trump and his Republican allies also continue to lie about the 2020 election…” Washington Week on PBS, 1 October 2021.
• “Former President Trump lied that the 2020 election was rigged [and] wrongly claimed that the election was stolen.” Washington Week on PBS, 7 May 2021.
Jacqueline Alemany, Congressional Investigations Reporter, The Washington Post
• “[Trump] has tried to defraud the American people by continuing to fundraise off of these false claims of election fraud.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 13 October 2022.
Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Anchor, CNN
• Trump has been “falsely crying election fraud for months…” CNN, 11 January 2021.
Anne Applebaum, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
• Trump is asking Americans to “accept a conspiracy theory, in this case that the 2020 election was stolen…” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 6 May 2024.
State of Arizona
• The results of the 2020 Presidential Election were “certified by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General [of Arizona].” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 24 September 2021.
Whit Ayres, Republican Pollster
• Criticized Republican candidates for “whining about elections that they haven’t won.” C‑SPAN, 10 November 2022.
John Avlon, Senior Political Analyst, CNN
• “The Republican Party is committed to defending a lie.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 13 February 2022.
• “We can’t emphasize enough what a departure [Trump’s false claim of victory in 2020] is from basic American values, let alone our best traditions.” Amanpour on CNN, 4 May 2022.
B
Bret Baier, Chief Political Anchor, Fox News
• “You lost the 2020 election,” Baier said to Trump in a 2023 interview. Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News, 19 June 2023.
Other statements by Baier in this same interview included the following:
- “There were recounts in all of the swing states. There was not significant widespread fraud.”
- “There were lawsuits — more than 50 of them — by your lawyers… that came out with no evidence.”
• “‘There is NO evidence of fraud,’ Bret Baier wrote to one of his bosses.” The Washington Post, 18 February 2023.
• “We’ve been clear. There’s not been any doubt,” Baier said when asked about Fox News’ reporting that Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. MediaBuzz on Fox News, 19 December 2021.
• Referenced “unfounded election fraud claims by former president Donald Trump.” Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News, 24 March 2022.
Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent, The New York Times
• “Actually, the truth is it was a free and fair election…” Washington Week on PBS, 10 December 2021.
• Trump is “refusing to accept the results of the democratic election, which he lost.” PBS NewsHour, 22 September 2022.
Dan Balz, Chief Correspondent, The Washington Post
• Trump is “lying about what happened in 2020…” Washington Week on PBS, 21 July 2023.
• Referenced “the election denialism that the President has continued to talk about…” Washington Week on PBS, 28 April 2023.
Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist
• “What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. He’s gonna declare himself a winner. That’s our strategy.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 13 July 2022 (audio recording reported by Mother Jones).
Bart Barber, President, Southern Baptist Convention
Interviewer: “Do you believe that the 2020 election was stolen?”
Barber: “No.”
Interviewer: “You believe that Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United States?”
Barber: “I do. Absolutely.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 9 October 2022.
William Barr, former U.S. Attorney General (Trump Administration)
• Claims of election fraud are “just not meritorious and they’re just not panning out.” Testimony to Congress, C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
Other statements by Barr in this same testimony included the following:
- Barr found no evidence of fraud “and I really still haven’t seen anything that changed my mind on that.”
- “Everyone knew that Democrat vote totals would surge as all of the mail‑in votes were finally counted.”
• “I repeatedly told the President … that I did not see evidence of fraud that would have affected the outcome of the election. … I saw absolutely zero evidence for the allegations. … I told them that it was crazy stuff, and it was doing a grave, grave disservice to the country.” C‑SPAN, 9 June 2022.
Additional statement by Barr in this same interview:
- “I made it clear [to the President] I did not agree with the idea that the election was stolen … I told the President it was bullshit.”
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
• “Trump [has] repeated false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and that the FBI was involved in the January 6th attack.” BBC News with Carl Nasman, 5 January 2023.
• Georgia election workers “were wrongly accused by Mr. Trump and his lawyer of committing voter fraud. … President Trump pressured them to overturn the results of the election with no good cause.” BBC World News America, 21 June 2022.
David Becker, Executive Director, Center for Election Innovation & Research
• The 2020 election was “an election where everyone agrees that there was no fraud and that it was legitimate.” Face the Nation on CBS, 11 February 2024.
• “They want everybody to engage in a game of whack‑a‑mole … none of which can be proven in court.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 19 October 2022.
• “The 2020 election … was the most secure, transparent and verified election in American history. And this is objectively true.” C‑SPAN, 11 July 2022.
• “The November 2020 election was widely considered the most secure in American history.” Face the Nation on CBS, 9 January 2022.
• “These laws … are being passed not in response to legitimate concerns about election integrity. They’re being passed in response to a lie.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 29 June 2021.
Paul Begala, Democratic Strategist
• Adhering to the lie that Trump won in 2020 “seems to be a litmus test on the Republican side.” State of the Union on CNN, 15 May 2022.
Michael Bender, White House Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
• “[Trump] even alleged voter fraud at the Emmy nominations for The Apprentice.” Book TV, 2 August 2021.
Katie Benner, Justice Department Reporter, The New York Times
• Referred to “this ongoing lie that Donald Trump won the election.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 28 September 2022.
Geoff Bennett, Co‑Anchor, PBS NewsHour
• Referred to Trump’s allegations of election fraud as thoroughly “debunked.” PBS NewsHour, 28 January 2022.
Guy Benson, Political Editor, Townhall.com; Fox News Contributor
• “[Trump] deserves a lot of criticism for what happened on January 6. … He was principally responsible … driving the election lies that he did.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 2 January 2022.
Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State of Michigan
• “People with guns showed up outside my home, because they’d been lied to and fed misinformation.” C‑SPAN, 28 March 2024.
Kathy Bernier, Wisconsin State Senator (R)
Interviewer: “Was the 2020 vote in Wisconsin clean and fair?”
Bernier: “Yes.”
Interviewer: “The election was not stolen from Donald Trump?”
Bernier: “No. There’s no evidence of voter fraud. It is my Christian values to tell the truth.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 13 March 2022.
Carl Bernstein, Journalist
• “It’s astonishing what those [Republican] Senators and Congressmen have done since to embrace the untruth [of a stolen election].” Amanpour on CNN, 11 January 2022.
Bipartisan Policy Center
• “We see groups like True the Vote or The Election Integrity Network espousing lies about the 2020 election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 7 November 2022.
Ken Block, Republican Data Analyst
• “What we found was that there was no fraud that changed the outcome of the election. We have yet to see anyone offer up evidence of voter fraud that is detectable, quantifiable and verifiable.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 4 January 2023.
John Boehner, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (R‑OH)
• “[Trump] continues to tell people that the election was stolen, without providing any real evidence. None.” PBS NewsHour, 15 April 2021.
• “[Trump] was lying to [supporters] about the outcome of the election … intended to incite an awful lot of people to show up on January 6th.” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, 12 April 2021.
Max Boot, Columnist, The Washington Post
• “The Republican Party has moved even further in support of the Big Lie [that the 2020 election was stolen].” Amanpour on CNN, 22 October 2021.
Mark Braden, former Chief Counsel, Republican National Committee
• “Our elections are generally well run in this country. There’s no real indication of massive fraud.” C‑SPAN, 1 October 2021.
Other statements by Braden in this same interview included the following:
- “The last election should not have triggered anything resembling an election crisis.”
- “It’s fair to refer to the former President as the arsonist … who started the fire of a lack of confidence in our system.”
Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks
Interviewer: “Do you believe the last election was free and fair?”
Brandon: “Yeah, I do.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 20 July 2021.
William Brangham, Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
• “A spokesman for President Trump reiterated this ongoing lie that the election was rigged and stolen. But there was no evidence of election fraud in Michigan. Joe Biden won Michigan fair and square.” PBS NewsHour, 22 December 2023.
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group
• “If you’re a democracy and you have an election where a former President has tried to subvert [the lawful outcome], the conversation should be first and foremost about that.” Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, 7 January 2024.
Brennan Center for Justice (Sean Morales‑Doyle)
• “Voter fraud is vanishingly rare. It almost never happens.” C‑SPAN, 21 October 2022.
Brennan Center for Justice (Gowri Ramachandran)
• “The November 2020 election was widely considered the most secure in American history. But an anti‑democracy movement, fueled by the Big Lie, now poses serious threats to elections.” C‑SPAN, 25 August 2022.
Mark Brnovich, former Attorney General of Arizona (R)
• Regarding allegations of election fraud: “Most of it is horse shit. And I’ve been trying to scrape it off my shoes for the last year.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 30 October 2022.
Other statements by Brnovich in this same interview included the following:
- Trump told him: “All you’ve got to do is say the election is fraudulent, and you will be a superstar.”
- “There were a lot of clowns out there who saw what they wanted to see. It’s like a giant grift in some ways.”
Anthony Brooks, former President, American Enterprise Institute; Harvard Professor
• “How to steal an election. It almost happened in 2020. … Donald Trump has repeated the lie — again and again — that he won that election.” On Point on NPR, 15 April 2024.
• Joe Biden “legitimately won the election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 18 February 2021.
David Brooks, Columnist, The New York Times; Analyst, PBS NewsHour
• “There [was] no major voting fraud [in 2020]. Essentially zero fraud.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 7 January 2022.
• “You sort of more or less have to lie [about the 2020 election] to qualify as a Republican.” PBS NewsHour, 7 May 2021.
Mo Brooks, former U.S. Representative (R‑AL)
• “I challenge anybody to make the argument that you can trust the word of Donald Trump.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 15 November 2022.
Mika Brzezinski, Co‑Host, Morning Joe
• “Donald Trump tried to get the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 election and keep him in power despite the fact that he lost.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 20 June 2022.
Ken Buck, former U.S. Representative (R‑CO)
• “I left because I could not tell a lie. The 2020 election was not stolen.” The Daily Show on Comedy Central, 3 June 2024.
Philip Bump, National Correspondent, The Washington Post
• Trump “spent years after the election claiming it was stolen, obviously without any evidence for that.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 30 August 2022.
President George W. Bush
• In a joint statement with Presidents Carter, Clinton, and Obama: “All four of us former Presidents affirmed the legitimacy of the 2020 election.” The New York Times, 5 January 2022.
C
Alex Cannon, Attorney, Trump 2020 Campaign
• “I remember telling [Trump] that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change any of the results in any of the key states.” January 6th Committee hearing, C‑SPAN, 9 June 2022.
Jonathan Capehart, Commentator, PBS NewsHour
• “There are people out there who are wallowing in the Big Lie [that the 2020 election was stolen].” PBS NewsHour, 15 October 2021.
Senator Tom Carper (D‑DE)
• Trump’s allegations of election fraud were “lies … let me repeat … bizarre and unfounded lies.” U.S. Senate floor, 1 May 2021.
President Jimmy Carter
• In a joint statement with Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Obama: “All four of us former Presidents affirmed the legitimacy of the 2020 election.” The New York Times, 5 January 2022.
Neil Cavuto, Anchor, Fox News
• “[Trump] still lost that election. That is not in doubt anymore. That is not being debated anymore.” Fox News, 29 February 2024.
David Chalian, Political Director, CNN
• “[Georgia] Governor Brian Kemp approved and certified a legitimate victory for Joe Biden in 2020 when Donald Trump wanted him to overturn the election based on a lie.” New Day on CNN, 12 May 2022.
Mona Charen, Conservative Columnist
• “We live in the era of the Big Lie. Donald Trump introduced Vladimir Putin‑style lying and disinformation into American life.” C‑SPAN, 27 February 2022.
Vice President Dick Cheney
• “[Trump] tried to steal the last election, using lies and violence to try to keep himself in power. … He lost his election. And he lost big. I know it. He knows it. And deep down, I think most Republicans know it.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 9 September 2024.
Chris Christie (R) former Governor of New Jersey
• “At 2:30 a.m. on election night … I said it was unfounded and that there was no evidence … and that he needed to stop.” This Week on ABC, 19 September 2021.
• “There’s been no evidence of widespread fraud … determined by Republican and Democratic governors … and by the Republican Attorney General of the United States Bill Barr.” This Week on ABC, 3 January 2021.
Bobby Christine, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia
• Clarified that his office “was unable to find ANY evidence of fraud that affected the outcome of the election.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
Chris Cillizza, Political Commentator, CNN
• “[Trump] falsely claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. [That] election was fairly conducted.” CNN, 24 December 2021.
President Bill Clinton
• In a joint statement with Presidents Bush, Carter, and Obama: “All four of us former Presidents affirmed the legitimacy of the 2020 election.” The New York Times, 5 January 2022.
Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Senator (D‑NY); former Secretary of State
• “Why [are we] buying into lies that have no basis in truth, facts, or evidence at all about our elections?” C‑SPAN, 17 September 2023.
Dan Coats, former U.S. Senator (R‑IN); former Director of National Intelligence
• As part of the National Council on Election Integrity: “NCEI members worked to neutralize the false narrative of widespread election fraud in the media … sowing serious doubt in our democratic process. Both before and after Election Day, the Council amplified a message aimed at encouraging patience and a peaceful transfer of power regardless of the outcome.”
Ty Cobb, former White House Counsel (Trump Administration)
• “The absence of evidence of fraud in Georgia is badly evident to anyone who’s familiar with the Georgia example.” OutFront with Erin Burnett on CNN, 1 August 2023.
• “This is the first time in American history that a president unconstitutionally attempted to remain in power illegally.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 12 September 2022.
William Cohen, former U.S. Senator (R‑ME); former Secretary of Defense
• “[Trump is] telling them that fraud was committed even when it wasn’t — an allegation which is completely false and fraudulent, issued from the mouth of the President of the United States.” On Point on NPR, 6 January 2021.
Barbara Comstock, former U.S. Representative (R‑VA)
• “[Trump’s] claims have turned out to be provably false again and again. [He is] just in my mind a sore loser. History will not be kind to those who are pushing the Big Lie … because it is so easily disproved.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 18 May 2021.
Kellyanne Conway, former Senior Counselor to President Trump
• “I may have been the first person Donald Trump trusted in his inner circle who told him that he had come up short [in the 2020 election]. … By not confronting the candidate with the grim reality of his situation — that the proof had not surfaced to support the claims [of election fraud] — [others] played along and lent full‑throated encouragement.” Here’s the Deal: A Memoir, 24 May 2022.
Charlie Cook, Political Analyst; Founder, The Cook Political Report
• “We’re facing so many problems in this country. Voter fraud is not one. … I don’t know anybody who knows a lot about elections, in either party, who actually believes that there’s a voter fraud problem in this country.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 30 October 2022.
Robert Costa, Chief Washington Analyst, CBS News
• “Some share [Trump’s] false claims that he won the election in 2020. He did not.” Face the Nation on CBS, 24 December 2023.
Senator Tom Cotton (R‑AR)
• “It’s past time for the President to accept the results of the election.” This Week on ABC, 5 May 2024.
D
Sen. John Danforth, former U.S. Senator (R‑MO)
• “Divisiveness … that’s his basic appeal. … When you try to upset an election, when you try to claim that elections are rigged … that the courts, that the judges are corrupt, it’s all rigged. … It’s a direct attack on our constitutional order.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 7 December 2024.
Oliver Darcy, CNN Media Correspondent
• Referred to “the lies pushed by this right‑wing media machine.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 27 March 2022.
Former Senator Tom Daschle (D‑SD), former Senate Majority Leader
• As part of the National Council on Election Integrity: “NCEI members worked to neutralize the false narrative of widespread election fraud in the media, including attempts to question the security of mail ballots that sowed serious doubt in our democratic process. Both before and after Election Day, the council amplified a message aimed at encouraging patience and a peaceful transfer of power regardless of the outcome.”
Ron DeSantis (R), Governor of Florida
• Regarding Donald Trump’s claims of widespread fraud: “All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true… Of course he lost.” Washington Post, 11 August 2023.
Gov. Mike DeWine (R), Governor of Ohio
• “President Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the election, despite producing no credible evidence of a rigged election … has threatened to bring down our democracy.” Statement played during impeachment hearing.
John Dickerson, CBS News Correspondent
• On election deniers running for Congress in 2022: “People who are going to win tonight — 150 have already won — who are lying about the last election. And that is poison that you are pouring into the American system.” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, 8 November 2022.
Bob Dole, former U.S. Senator (R‑KS) and 1996 Republican Presidential Nominee
• “He lost. It’s over. There was no voter fraud.” PBS News Hour, 6 December 2021.
• “There’s no question that Trump lost his reelection race in 2020, fair and square. He lost the election, and I regret that he did, but he did. Never had one bit of fraud in all those lawsuits and statements. And I’m a Trumper.’” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 22 July 2021.
Richard Donoghue, former Acting Deputy Attorney General (Trump Administration)
• “To try to put it in very clear terms to the President … we’ve done dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews. The major allegations are not supported by the evidence developed. We’ve looked in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada. We’re doing our job. Much of the information you’re getting is false.” January 6th Committee testimony, C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
Other statements by Donoghue in this same interview included the following:
- “We look at the evidence but they don’t pan out.”
- “We looked into that and it’s just not true.”
- “I told the President myself several times … these allegations about ballots being smuggled in … it was not true. We looked at the video, we interviewed the witnesses; it was not true.”
- “What you’re proposing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election.”
- “Much of the information you’re getting is false.”
Steve Doocy, Co‑Host, Fox & Friends, Fox News Channel
• “[Trump] knew that he had lost because he was told by a bunch of people, ‘You’ve lost, Mr. President.’ But he kept repeating the lie, and these conspiracy charges were about, are about how the people around him, six co-conspirators, figured ways to keep that lie going.” Fox & Friends on Fox News, 2 August 2023
Maureen Dowd, Columnist, The New York Times
• Referred to Liz Cheney “continu[ing] calling out Donald Trump’s Big Lie.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 9 May 2021.
Robert Draper, Writer, The New York Times
• Referenced “the failure to reinstall a legitimately defeated president…” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 16 August 2022.
• Referred to those who “believe the lie that the election was stolen…” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 21 October 2022.
E
John Eastman, Attorney; Leader of Trump’s Effort to Overturn the 2020 Election
• Email from administration deliberations on Trump testimony: “…the President … has … been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) has been inaccurate. For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge … would not be accurate.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 20 October 2022 (email dated 31 December 2020).
• In Georgia, “He leveled dubious claims of fraud, including votes by 2,500 felons, and 10,000 dead people.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 5 November 2023.
• Bill Plante: “You said 2,500 convicts; the investigation found 4. You said 10,000 dead voters. The investigation found 4.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 5 November 2023.
• Greg Jacobs, counsel to Vice President Pence, regarding Trump’s statement that “the Vice President and I are in complete and total agreement”: “I was outraged, because I knew it was categorically false.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 5 November 2023.
• Jacobs to Eastman during the January 6 attack: “Thanks to your bullshit we are now under siege.”
• Jacobs describing Eastman’s influence: “A serpent in the ears of the President.”
• Eastman “was forced to retire as a professor at Chapman University.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 5 November 2023.
The Economist
• “[Trump’s] campaign has produced no evidence of fraud or irregularities large enough to shift tens of thousands of votes in multiple states.” The Economist, 14 November 2021.
• On Republican leaders endorsing Trump’s false claims: “The effect … damages America’s ability to govern itself.” The Economist, 21 November 2020.
Marc Elias, Attorney; Founder, Democracy Docket
• “In 2020 … defeating 64 of 65 lawsuits that Donald Trump threw at us after the election … he lost all but one of them, and that involved no vote change.” The Sunday Show on MSNBC, 6 October 2024.
Jenna Ellis, Attorney for Donald Trump
• “I failed to do my due diligence. I believe in, and value, election integrity. If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post‑election challenges. I look back on these experiences with deep remorse. I apologize to the people of Georgia.” Morning Joe, MSNBC, 29 May 2024 (reporting a public statement Ellis made 24 October 2023).
• Note: Ellis eventually pleaded guilty to felony charges of aiding and abetting false statements.
Mark Esper, former U.S. Secretary of Defense (Trump Administration)
• Trump “tried to undermine the 2020 election results … a threat to our democracy.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 15 May 2022.
• Referred to January 6th as “insurrection, an attempt to overturn a free and fair election.” PBS News Hour, 10 May 2022.
F
Facebook Oversight Board
•Upheld the Facebook ban on Donald Trump “[for] maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action…” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 5 May 2021.
The Fact Checker (by The Washington Post)
• “At least 86 judges … consistently found there was no substantive evidence to support claims of fraud and irregularities.” The Washington Post, 6 November 2022
Karen Fann, former President of the Arizona Senate (Republican)
• After presenting the findings of the Cyber Ninjas’ forensic audit of the Maricopa County election results, and a hand recount that found 99 more voter for Biden and 261 fewer votes for Trump compared to the original count, “Truth is truth and numbers are numbers.” Washington Examiner, 24 September 2022.
Jeff Flake, former US Senator (R‑AZ)
• “It’s difficult to support a candidate who, having lost an election, tries to use the powers of the presidency to overturn that election. That is anything but respect for the rule of law.” This Week on ABC, 29 September 2024.
Ari Fleischer, former White House Press Secretary (George W. Bush Administration)
• “The election wasn’t stolen. Donald Trump did lose it. I’ve said that right from the start.” After Words on C‑SPAN, 30 July 2022.
David Folkenflik, NPR Correspondent
• “Three‑fifths of Republicans believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fraudulently, which is NOT true; and disproven in countless ways in courtrooms and by officials both Democratic and Republican.” PBS News Hour, 14 December 2021.
Richard Fowler, Fox News Contributor
• “The President’s line of reasoning hasn’t stood up a day in court, [and] really has no evidence to back it … that says somehow, some way this election was stolen from him, and there was massive voter fraud taking place.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 10 October 2021.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R‑NC)
• “I have never said I didn’t respect the results of the last election.” Rules Committee markup, C‑SPAN, 28 October 2021.
David French, Writer, The Dispatch; Contributor, The Atlantic
• Referred to “the stolen election lie.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 15 August 2022.
Thomas Friedman, Columnist, The New York Times
• Referred to the “fabrication of election fraud.” The New York Times, 28 September 2021.
• On Netanyahu acknowledging Biden’s victory: “How crazy is that?” Washington Week on PBS, 7 June 2024.
David Frum, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
• On the attempted overthrow of the election: “If you’re trying to analyze the harm being done to American democracy by an attempted overthrow of an election on January 6th…” Reliable Sources on CNN, 24 July 2022.
John Fund, former Staff Writer, The Wall Street Journal; National Review
• “There is no voter fraud. There certainly were exaggerations. There were certainly things that were made up of whole cloth after the election. And I think that it was unbelievably reckless, and almost criminal in some cases … you have these grifters on the internet describing election fraud; there was no basis for it.” Book TV, 15 August 2021.
• “No, I don’t think that the election was illegitimate.” Book TV, 15 August 2021.
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Amy Gardner, Reporter, The Washington Post
• “At the extreme end there are people like Blake and Mastriano who say unequivocally that they would not have certified the results of 2020 in their states, Arizona and Pennsylvania, despite the lack of evidence that Trump won those states.” Velshi on MSNBC, 9 October 2022.
Willie Geist, Co‑Host, Morning Joe on MSNBC
• Referred to “pressure by President Trump on the Department of Justice to go along with the Big Lie.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 27 July 2022.
• “Trump supporters claim — again, without evidence — that the 2020 election was stolen.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 17 May 2024.
David Gergen, Senior Political Analyst and Harvard Professor
• “The Republicans have been taking a lot of time arguing, and getting a lot of agreement from their base, that Trump was unfairly treated in the elections. And the Big Lie has taken hold….” Diane Rehm: On My Mind, 13 May 2022.
Ben Ginsberg, Republican Election Attorney
• “No court found any fraud claim to be credible. There was never that instance. In all the cases that were brought … the simple fact is that the Trump campaign did not make its case.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
• “In no instance did the court find that the allegations of fraud were real.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
• “There have been post‑election reviews in each of the six battleground states … and in each one of those instances, there was no credible evidence of fraud produced by the Trump campaign or his supporters.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
• “There was no credible evidence of fraud produced by the Trump campaign or his supporters. … I’m 100% certain that it will be fair, accurate and secure.” Firing Line on PBS, 2 August 2024.
Susan Glasser, Staff Writer, The New Yorker
• On Mark Meadows: “Mark Meadows was very actively conducting a disinformation campaign … and he was helping to promote the election lies.” Frontline, “Lies, Politics and Democracy,” PBS, 7 September 2022.
Eddie Glaude, Professor, Princeton University
• “You still have people who believe in the Big Lie.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 6 July 2023.
Elaine Godfrey, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
• “I sometimes call them liars. … They are lying or being actively deluded by Trump.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 7 August 2022.
Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor‑in‑Chief, The Atlantic; Host, Washington Week
• “We did not use the word ‘lie’ to describe lies for a long time. But now we do. So I think we’re catching up.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 21 August 2022.
• On Washington Week: referred to “a candidate who has issues with reality, issues with the truth….” Washington Week on PBS, 10 November 2023.
• “Trump … fomented a violent, antidemocratic insurrection meant to overturn the results of a fair election.” The Atlantic, May 2024.
Jonah Goldberg, Founder, The Dispatch
• “People from the opinion division [of Fox News] perpetuate lies about the election being stolen…” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 31 January 2021.
• “Most elected Republicans no longer denounce his election lies and refuse to tell the truth about Biden’s victory.” Los Angeles Times, 12 October 2021.
Anthony Gonzalez, former U.S. Representative (R‑OH)
• “January 6 was the line that can’t be crossed. January 6 was an unconstitutional attempt led by the President of the United States to overturn an American election and to reinstall himself in power illegitimately.” CNN, Trumping Democracy, 5 November 2021.
• “This Week,” 7 January 2024: Asked whether Biden stole the election: “Of course not.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (R‑SC)
• “Joe Biden is the legitimate president. … There has been a constant effort by people from the President’s legal team to provide misinformation, to distort the facts, to make accusations that cannot be proven.” Press conference, 7 January 2021.
• “I accept the results of the 2020 election.” This Week on ABC, 24 December 2023.
• “They say there are 66,000 people in Georgia under 18 [who] voted. … Give me 10. Haven’t had one. … They said that 8,000 felons in prison voted. Give me 10. I haven’t got one. … It is over.” U.S. Senate floor, 6 January 2021.
Senator Charles Grassley (R‑IA)
• “America’s elections are free and fair; that’s true in all 50 states. It was true in 2018 and in 2020 and I’m confident it will be true in 2022.” U.S. Senate floor, 10 May 2021.
• “In 2020 … President Biden won that election.” U.S. Senate floor, 18 January 2022.
Trey Grayson, former Secretary of State of Kentucky (R)
• As part of the National Council on Election Integrity: “NCEI members worked to neutralize the false narrative of widespread election fraud in the media…”
• “Folks who still believe that the 2020 election was stolen, and FALSELY, to be clear…” C‑SPAN, 1 November 2022.
Christina Greer, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University
• “Secretaries of State … gubernatorial candidates who believe in the Big Lie….” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 30 August 2022.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House Director of Strategic Communications (Trump Administration)
• “Lying to the public about the fundamentals of our democracy and the fact that we had a legitimate election and Joe Biden legitimately won is beyond destructive to the future of this country.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 16 January 2022.
• “We all witnessed him trying to steal a democratic election before and going to historic and unconstitutional lengths to do so.” This Week on ABC, 31 December 2023.
Thomas Griffith, retired Federal Judge; Co‑Author, “Lost, Not Stolen”
• “Were the January 6th rioters duped?” “Yes.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 15 September 2024.
• “The conclusion of the report was that there’s no evidence that fraud changed the outcome of an election in ANY precinct in the United States of America. And all of the EVIDENCE … points in one direction. And that is that President Biden won, and that President Trump lost.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 15 September 2024.
Stephanie Grisham, former White House Press Secretary (Trump Administration)
• “He has no fidelity to the truth. … He used to tell me: ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you.’” C‑SPAN, 20 August 2024.
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Alina Habba, former Attorney for Donald Trump
• “Everybody was made aware that he lost the election.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 4 August 2023.
Maggie Haberman, Reporter, The New York Times
• Referred to Trump having “spent two months lying about the results of the presidential election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 18 July 2024.
Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R‑NE)
• See entry under National Council on Election Integrity.
Nikki Haley, former US Senator (R-SC) and Ambassador to the United Nations
• “How many times are you going to let him lie to you about things that just aren’t true?” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 1 February 2024.
• “Who lost the White House? Donald Trump.” Fox News, 19 January 2024.
Victor Davis Hanson, Historian; Author of “The Case for Trump”
• “I do not think that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. … I voted for Trump …” In Depth on C‑SPAN, 5 December 2021.
Richard Hasen, Election Law Scholar
• “Fraud is quite rare in American elections. … False claims…” PBS News Hour, 1 June 2022.
• “We did not see any serious incidents of fraud ….” On My Mind, 14 January 2022.
• Referred to Trump and allies “perpetuating an incessant lie that the election was stolen.” Book TV, Cheap Speech.
• “All of those confirm the results of the election. What happened recently in Arizona and what’s happening in other states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania can’t accurately be called an audit. This is really a public relations attempt to convince millions of people that there’s something to worry about in the last election, and I’m much more worried about that for the ramifications of the next election …” PBS News Hour, 7 October 2021.
• “Those Republican heroes from the last time around, who would not bend or break the law and overturn the results of the election — many of those people are being replaced.” PBS News Hour, 7 October 2021.
Rosalind Helderman, Reporter, The Washington Post
• On Trump pressuring his own DOJ “to intervene in an election he lost.” PBS News Hour, 18 June 2021.
Eric Herschmann, former Trump White House Lawyer
• “I thought the Dominion stuff was — I never saw any evidence WHATSOEVER to sustain those allegations.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
• “What they were proposing, I thought, was nuts. … It was a combination of the Italians, the Germans … Hugo Chávez and the Venezuelans … something with the software in the Philippines … it was just all over the radar.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
Clint Hickman, Maricopa County Supervisor (R‑AZ)
• “Hickman said he saw no evidence of fraud and said so when he voted to certify the election.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 7 October 2024.
• He has “lost count” of the death threats against him, “and so have my colleagues, and so have many election workers.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 7 October 2024.
Larry Hogan, former Governor of Maryland (R)
• “One of the reasons that I continue to speak up and tell the truth about what happened … it’s critically important; frankly it’s crazy that many people believe things that simply aren’t true … there’s been just an amazing amount of disinformation … and many people … are believing that disinformation as if it’s fact.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 3 January 2022.
• “The truth is, the last election was not rigged. It wasn’t stolen. We simply didn’t offer the majority of voters what they were looking for.” Remarks at the Reagan Presidential Library, 3 May 2022.
• “January 6th … was an outrageous attack on our democracy, incited by the losing candidate’s inflammatory false rhetoric.” Remarks at the Reagan Presidential Library, 3 May 2022.
Josh Holmes, former Chief of Staff to Senator Mitch McConnell
• McConnell “knew that Trump had increasingly been trying to rein in any Republicans that observed reality at this point. And the significance of McConnell saying ‘it’s over’ means that it’s over.” Frontline, “Lies, Politics and Democracy,” PBS, 7 September 2022.
• Recounted Trump’s furious call to McConnell; McConnell responded: “The election is over. You lost.” Frontline, 7 September 2022.
Margaret Hoover, Host, Firing Line on PBS
• “Voting experts agree U.S. elections are the most free, fair and secure IN THE WORLD.” PBS Special, “Counting the Vote,” 27 August 2024.
• Arizona’s results “concluded — CORRECTLY — that Joe Biden won Arizona.” PBS Special, 27 August 2024.
• Referred to “Trump’s election fraud lies.” Firing Line on PBS, 10 December 2021.
• “Christie broke with Trump over election lies.” Firing Line on PBS, 18 August 2023.
• “Trump’s loss in Georgia.” Firing Line on PBS, 18 November 2023.
• Interview with Maricopa County Recorder on “election official fighting lies.” Firing Line on PBS, 26 April 2024.
Will Hurd, former U.S. Representative (R‑TX)
• “Krebs, instead of being fired, should have been thanked for being responsible for one of the most secure elections we’ve ever had. There’s no evidence to suggest otherwise.” C‑SPAN, 3 December 2020.
• “I think that Chris Krebs did an amazing job…” C‑SPAN, 3 December 2020.
• “Joe Biden won the election. Period. Full stop. It was lost by Donald Trump. And it was lost by Donald Trump because he was incapable of growing the Republican Party to different groups.” PBS News Hour, 7 April 2022.
Asa Hutchinson, former Governor of Arkansas (R)
• “Subsequent to the elections, where he was questioning the legality of it, with the lawful transfer of power — yes, that was a threat to our democracy. That was a threat to our institutions of government. … During that time, he was a risk to the nation. Absolutely.” CBS Mornings, 3 July 2022 (rebroadcast on Morning Joe, 4 July 2022).
Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor, The Washington Post
• Warned that efforts could “allow Donald Trump to succeed where Trump failed in 2020: to steal an election that he lost.” The Washington Post, 14 June 2021.
• Referred to Trump’s “lie of having won.” The Washington Post, 14 June 2021.
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David Ignatius, Columnist, The Washington Post
• Introducing Chris Krebs: “You got sacked … for trying to protect our elections and speaking out clearly and directly about …” Washington Post Live, 16 December 2021.
• “The Big Lie has been tested in every court, in every recount … and there IS no basis.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 3 November 2022.
Walter Isaacson, Author and Journalist
• On Trump: “Insisted he won … which is, of course, incorrect.” Amanpour on CNN, 14 October 2021.
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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), House Democratic Leader
• Referred to those who “perpetrated the Big Lie that Joe Biden was not elected.” C‑SPAN, 19 April 2022.
Elise Jordan, Political Analyst
• Referred to Republicans “spewing election lies.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 20 June 2023.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R‑OH)
• Asked about people claiming the 2020 election was stolen: “I’ve not said that.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 24 March 2024.
• “Most people don’t question the result.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 24 March 2024.
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Senator Tim Kaine (D‑VA)
• “This effort to disenfranchise people based on this big lie of ‘well, it was rigged, it was stolen, there’s voter fraud.’ All of those things President Trump said were lies, but they were repeated ad nauseam … and they’re taking away people’s right to vote.” PBS News Hour, 20 October 2021.
• Referred to Trump’s “lies” and “meritless claims.” U.S. Senate floor, 7 January 2022.
Zolan Kanno‑Youngs, White House Correspondent, The New York Times
• “We are having candidates who are outright DENYING the results of the previous election.” Washington Week on PBS, 16 September 2022.
Sahil Kapur, National Political Reporter, NBC News
• Referred to the “insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, which is false.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 7 June 2024.
Jonathan Karl, Chief Washington Correspondent, ABC News
• Referred to “Trump’s truth‑free claim that the election was stolen. That lie became urgent…” Face the Nation on CBS, 12 June 2022.
• “After Trump lost in 2020 …” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 14 November 2023.
Rep. John Katko (R‑NY)
• “He deliberately promoted baseless theories, creating … misinformation and division.” U.S. House floor remarks, rebroadcast during impeachment trial, 11 February 2021.
Katty Kay, BBC Journalist
• “Herschel Walker … is prepared to support Trump on the single biggest issue that matters to Donald Trump … the lie around the 2020 election.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 4 October 2022.
Tamara Keith, White House Correspondent, PBS News Hour
• “If Republicans, whether they agree with the Big Lie or not … [won’t] talk about what happened on January 6…” PBS News Hour, 10 May 2021.
Gen. John Kelly, former White House Chief of Staff
• Trump’s behavior “in the weeks and months before that have just been outrageous … poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the frauds….” CNN interview (rebroadcast on Washington Journal), 8 January 2021.
Governor Brian Kemp (R‑GA)
• “The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward — under oath — and prove anything in a court of law. Our elections in Georgia are secure … fair and will continue …” Morning Joe on MSNBC.
Brian Kilmeade, Host, Fox News Channel
• “All those Republicans were telling us the inside story … that he’d been cheated in Georgia … Arizona … Wisconsin — but we never saw any proof of it.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 26 June 2022.
• “You only see the time that Trump was unhinged … but there were other times … that talked about him being resigned and understanding that he lost the election.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 2 October 2022.
Seung Min Kim, CNN Correspondent
• Asked whether there was any fraud in Georgia: “Absolutely not.” CNN, 15 August 2023.
Senator Angus King (I‑ME)
• “Repeating a lie doesn’t make it true. Every objective study to try to detect widespread voter fraud … has failed to produce credible evidence of anything but scattered and vanishingly rare cases.” U.S. Senate floor, 19 October 2021.
• “Even the overtly partisan, so‑called audit of the votes in Maricopa County, Arizona failed to find what they were so desperately looking for.” U.S. Senate floor, 19 October 2021.
Adam Kinzinger, former U.S. Representative (R‑IL)
• “You can … fight to try to tell the truth. You can fight against the cancer in the Republican Party of lies, of conspiracy, of dishonesty.” This Week on ABC, 31 October 2021.
• “The truth is that the election was not stolen. … Win the next election instead of continuing the Big Lie.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 12 May 2021.
• “To our base voters who believe the election was stolen … I don’t blame them because their leaders have told them the exact same thing.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 12 May 2021.
Admiral John Kirby (Ret.), National Security Council Spokesman
• “One of the most wonderful things about being an American citizen is that we elect our leaders. We … should be proud, and confident, in the process by which our representatives are put into that office ….” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 1 November 2022.
Chris Krebs, former Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Trump Administration)
• “This was a secure election. Of that I have no doubt.” CNN Special Report, “Assault on Democracy,” 20 June 2020.
• “It was the most litigated, it was the most scrutinized, it was the most audited … this election was put through the ringer … Don’t take it from me. Take it from Bill Barr.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 23 October 2022.
• “We’re probably backsliding … and it’s not due to the professional elections officials … it’s political interference at the state level … you’re seeing political operatives … bend the knee to the former president … I have serious concerns …” Washington Post Live, 16 December 2021.
Howie Kurtz, Host, MediaBuzz, Fox News Channel
• “While Trump’s claims of widespread fraud remain unproven, this has become a litmus test within the party.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 9 May 2021.
• “I agree that the former president should be challenged if he talks about a stolen election….” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 21 February 2021.
• The Wall Street Journal ran a letter from Trump “filled [with] unproven claims about how the Pennsylvania election was rigged…” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 31 October 2021.
• “Donald Trump insisted, and continues to say, without proof … that the election was rigged against him.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 23 April 2023.
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Jonathan Lemire, White House Bureau Chief, Politico
• On Trump’s CPAC speech: “As usual, [he] used his speech to spread lies about the 2020 election and false claims about rampant voter fraud.” Way Too Early on MSNBC, 8 August 2022.
• On Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano: He “has continued to push the Big Lie.” Way Too Early on MSNBC, 10 August 2022.
David Leonhardt, Columnist, The New York Times
• Referred to “blatantly false statements claiming that Biden did not really win the 2020 election.” The New York Times, 13 December 2021.
Yuval Levin, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Founding Editor, National Affairs
• “There is much, much less fraud in our elections than there has been at almost any time you could have looked in on them in the history of the United States.” C‑SPAN, 6 March 2023 (Realignment podcast, recorded 25 January 2023).
Mara Liasson, National Political Correspondent, NPR
• “He wants to perpetuate what I believe is a lie — false — that he actually won the 2020 election, sometimes he says in a landslide.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 9 May 2021.
• “The new litmus test for being loyal to Donald Trump is agreeing with this lie that the election was stolen from him … that November third was the real insurrection.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 10 October 2021.
Sarah Longwell, Publisher, The Bulwark
• “What about Josh Hawley; what about Ted Cruz, what about Kevin McCarthy … and all the Republicans who fed those voters lies? They amplified his lie and told them that the election was stolen…” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 16 February 2021.
• Referred to “a set of very scary … ‘Stop the Steal’ candidates…” Reliable Sources on CNN, 24 July 2022.
Laura Barrón‑López, White House Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
• “Trump continues to lie about the 2020 election…” Washington Week on PBS, 5 January 2023.
Frank Luntz, Republican Strategist and Pollster
• On GOP reluctance to contradict Trump: “Because Donald Trump is still the most popular person within the Republican Party. When he endorses, it’s still worth a 5 or 10% bounce.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 19 June 2022.
• On Trump’s refusal to concede: He “would not accept that he lost … but he did….” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 30 July 2023.
• “I beg you all: don’t turn this into a partisan issue. Republicans who keep saying that there’s election fraud — there’s tiny evidence, and nothing substantial about election fraud across the country.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 3 October 2022.
• “What the former president has done is so destructive to democracy. … People talk to each other, they can’t hear each other, they don’t want to listen … they don’t want to learn.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 21 October 2022.
Judge J. Michael Luttig, former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge
• “In fact, he lost that election, fair and square, in what we now know was perhaps the fairest election in American history.” Deadline: White House on MSNBC, 22 August 2023.
Derek Lyons, former White House Staff Secretary
• “We told that group, the President included, that none of those things had been substantiated to the extent that [they could] challenge the election.” January 6th Committee hearing, C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
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Martha MacCallum, Anchor, Fox News Channel
• On Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn electors: “It is very compelling. And the lack of evidence is the huge, stunning, clear moment here … ‘Please give me something to work with.’ And it simply doesn’t materialize.” Fox News, 21 June 2022.
• “The problem was that they couldn’t back it up with anything in the courts, and they couldn’t back it up with evidence that they produced.” Fox News, 28 June 2022.
Bill Maher, Host, Real Time with Bill Maher
• “The Big Lie was finally losing momentum.” Real Time on HBO (via Morning Joe), 12 August 2022.
• “Some politicians have done worse things, like trying to overthrow the government of the United States.” Real Time on CNN, 28 September 2024.
Joe Manchin, former US Senator (D‑WV)
• “Under President Trump we have NOT seen an orderly transfer. … We have 41 million people still believing that Joe Biden is maybe not duly elected — which he absolutely is — and it was absolutely done in a very fair and very, very secure manner.” State of the Union on CNN, 1 August 2021.
• “You have to believe the facts and accept them.” State of the Union on CNN, 1 August 2021.
• “President Trump has not acknowledged that the insurrection was real … He didn’t accept the orderly transfer of power … He’s still attacking the rule of law and the judicial system.” State of the Union on CNN, 21 July 2024.
Chris Matthews, Journalist
• “He clearly lost the election. … There’s no doubt about it. It was over. They know he lost. Everybody thinking about it knows he lost the election.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 20 March 2023.
Sarah Matthews, former Deputy Press Secretary, Trump White House
• On Trump’s 4:17 p.m. video during the attack: “I was struck by the fact that he chose to begin the video by pushing the lie that there was a stolen election.” January 6th Committee testimony, 21 July 2022.
• “He told the people he had just watched storm our nation’s Capitol … I knew I would be resigning that evening.” January 6th Committee testimony, 21 July 2022.
Andy McCarthy, Legal Analyst, Fox News Channel
• “What they’re trying to emphasize … is that Trump must have known that there was nothing to this because everybody around him who was credible was telling him it was nonsense.” Fox News, 12:54 p.m. broadcast following January 6th hearing.
• On Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony: “These charges should have been in the articles of impeachment … they’re building a very strong case.” Fox News, 28 June 2022.
Former Senator Claire McCaskill (D‑MO)
• “This has become a huge thing, with NO EVIDENCE. There is NO EVIDENCE that there was fraud in the election. … If there was evidence, they wouldn’t have lost every single court case.” MSNBC, 16 October 2022.
Senator Mitch McConnell (R‑KY), Senate Republican Leader
• “Courts have rejected these claims … none before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tilted the election. … The voters and the courts and the states have all spoken. … This election was actually not even close.” U.S. Senate floor, 6 January 2021.
• “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the President.” U.S. Senate floor, 19 January 2021.
• “It was a violent insurrection, for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, after a legitimately certified election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 9 February 2022.
• On Trump’s conduct: “[The rioters] had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on earth because he was mad that he had lost the election. … The election was settled, it was over.” U.S. Senate floor, 13 February 2021.
Dave McCormick, Republican Nominee for U.S. Senate (PA)
• “I don’t agree with Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.” Inside Politics with Manu Raju on CNN, 8 September 2024.
Michael McDonald, Professor of Political Science, University of Florida
• “There was no widespread fraud in the election. And Trump and his allies have yet to produce any evidence that there was any fraud in the election that was widespread.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 7 October 2022.
• Said that both 2016 and 2020 “were free and fair.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 7 October 2022.
Gen. H. R. McMaster, former National Security Advisor
• Referred to Trump’s “sustained disinformation … denying the results of the election, spreading these unfounded conspiracy theories and claims of widespread corruption ….” State of the Union on CNN, 17 January 2021.
Mark Meadows, former White House Chief of Staff
• Trump “was told repeatedly by a number of his aides, by his own Justice Department, by his own top advisors, by his own family, that he lost. … Privately he seemed to understand this.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 14 October 2022.
• Meadows told an aide: “Look. I know I lost, but it’s embarrassing so I want to fight it anyhow.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 14 October 2022.
Mediaite.com
• “In pushing the reckless lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent … that belief is wrong. It is clearly false. Attempts to prove it have been shot down in court.” Mediaite, 11 January 2021.
• “A number of Fox News anchors have debunked claims of a stolen election, namely Bret Baier and Chris Wallace.” Mediaite, 11 January 2021.
Tim Miller, Writer, The Bulwark
• Referred to “candidates … who believe, for example, that Joe Biden is the legitimate president…” All In on MSNBC, 10 May 2022.
• “The fealty to the Big Lie and to the election hysteria has to be the number one takeaway from CPAC.” Way Too Early on MSNBC, 8 August 2022.
Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• “[Trump] tried to get the Department of Justice to help him overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 23 June 2022.
• Trump “claimed without evidence that the boxes and absentee voting were rife with fraud.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 26 August 2024.
Matt Morgan, General Counsel, Trump 2020 Campaign
• “Whether the fraud … if aggregated and read most favorably to the campaign, would be outcome‑determinant … the assessment … was that it was not sufficient to be outcome‑determinant.” January 6th Committee hearing, C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
• “The general consensus was that the law firms were not comfortable making the arguments that Rudy Giuliani was making publicly.” C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
Piers Morgan, Journalist
• “It was a free and fair election; you lost. … I’ve not seen the hard evidence … to prove that election was rigged or stolen from you.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 24 April 2022.
Michael Mukasey, former U.S. Attorney General (George W. Bush Administration)
• “The President’s behavior constituted an impeachable offense, including all the misrepresentations of law and fact he made about the election … that he says could have changed the outcome.” Journal Editorial Report on Fox News, 16 January 2021.
Mick Mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff
• Said Trump admitted to him that he had lost Arizona. Morning Joe on MSNBC, 2 January 2023.
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, Fox Corporation
• Suggested that Fox’s prime‑time hosts “should … say something like ‘the election is over and Joe Biden won.’” The Washington Post, 18 February 2023.
• Said this “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election was stolen.” The Washington Post, 18 February 2023.
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National Council on Election Integrity
• “NCEI members worked to neutralize the false narrative of widespread election fraud in the media … sowing serious doubt in our democratic process. Both before and after Election Day, the council amplified a message aimed at encouraging patience and a peaceful transfer of power regardless of the outcome.”
Note: NCEI members included the following: Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA); former Chair of the Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright; Michael Chertoff, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in the George W. Bush administration; former Senator Dan Coats (R- IN) who served as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence; Barbara Comstock (R-VA); General James Comstock; former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R., FL); former Senator and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD); former Senator Russ Feingold (D.-WI); Trey Grayson, former KY Secretary of State and Director of the Harvard Institute of Politics; former Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-WI); former Senator and former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (R-NE); former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-IN); Bill Haslam, former Republican Governor of Tennessee; former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AK); former Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA); former Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY); former Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD); former Senator Carol Mosely Braun (D- IL), Ret. Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former Representative and former Chair of the House Republican Caucus Deborah Pryce (R-OH); former Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI), former Republican Governor of Pennsylvania and former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge; Ret. Admiral Mike Rogers, former Commander of Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency; former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who also chaired the Intelligence Committee; Michael Steele, former Chair of the Republican National Committee; Representative Zach Wamp (R-TN); former Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO).
Amna Nawaz, Co‑Anchor, PBS NewsHour
• Referred to “that lie about election fraud in 2020…” PBS NewsHour, 25 October 2021.
• Referenced “the Big Lie.” Amanpour on PBS, 23 November 2021.
The New York Post
• Front‑page banner headline: “Mr. President … STOP THE INSANITY. You lost the election. You’re cheering for an undemocratic coup.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 3 January 2021.
New York Supreme Court
• Revoked Rudy Giuliani’s law license, finding that he “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former president Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign … [regarding] his failed effort at reelection in 2020.” January 6th Committee Hearing, C‑SPAN, 9 June 2022.
The New York Times
• “Trump’s false claim of a stolen election in 2020…” The New York Times, 12 December 2021.
• On post‑election litigation: “…a wave of lawsuits and partisan audits in closely contested states, none of which turned up evidence of more than extremely isolated instances of fraud.” The New York Times, 11 December 2021.
No Labels
• “Skepticism of election integrity is more prevalent among Republicans, who think the 2020 presidential election was stolen (it wasn’t, according to over 60 court cases — many overseen by judges appointed by former President Trump — that rejected the Trump campaign’s stolen‑election charges after the 2020 elections).” Common Sense, published July 2023.
Peggy Noonan, Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
• “Mr. Trump targeted Georgia Governor Brian Kemp … Mr. Kemp refused to bend to the then‑president’s pressure to falsify state results of the 2020 election….” The Wall Street Journal, 21 May 2022.
O
President Barack Obama
• Referred to Trump “claiming, without any evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen.” Phoenix speech, rebroadcast on Morning Joe, 3 November 2022.
• “All four of us former presidents … affirmed the legitimacy of the 2020 election.”
Jane O’Brien, Correspondent, BBC World News America
• “As some Republican candidates continue to deny the results of the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost.” BBC World News America, 3 November 2022.
Kelly O’Donnell, Senior White House Correspondent, NBC News
• At CPAC, Trump “again made false claims about the 2020 election…” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 8 August 2022.
Henry Olsen, Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
• “[Trump] castigated the Supreme Court for not hearing his bogus appeals that lacked legal merit. … The fact is the election was not stolen.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 2 March 2021.
• Referred to “the wrongful allegation of the alleged theft of the election…” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 9 November 2021.
• “Trump’s lies about the stealing of the election. The election was not stolen; he lost.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 16 May 2021.
• “Every time I got an allegation, I drilled down on it and there was never any proof to any of it.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 14 May 2023.
• “Trump remains in denial about what really happened in the 2020 election…” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 14 May 2023.
Norm Ornstein, Political Scientist
• Trump “spouted his pathetic lies about the election being stolen…” On My Mind on NPR,15 October 2021.
P
Julie Pace, Executive Editor, The Associated Press
• “As he continues to peddle this false information, lies about what happened in the election … that part of the party mobilized … believing in an event that didn’t happen; that election was free and fair and Joe Biden won.” This Week on ABC, 10 October 2021.
Tara Palmeri, Senior Political Correspondent
• On “what happens when they perpetuate some of these election lies.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 31 July 2022.
Leon Panetta, former U.S. Secretary of Defense; former CIA Director
• Trump “was clear that he was going to promote this Big Lie that somehow the election was stolen.” PBS NewsHour, 15 July 2021.
• Asked whether the Republican Party wants to “take on the Trump Big Lie … take on these conspiracy theories that are crazy and nuts?” The Purple Principle, 28 June 2022.
Ashley Parker, Senior National Political Reporter, The Washington Post
• “Fealty to the Big Lie — this false and baseless claim that the election was stolen — is something that is incredibly important to him [Trump] when he is making endorsements, and he wants to be a kingmaker.” Washington Week on PBS, 5 August 2022.
Former Vice President Mike Pence
• “The issue of challenging the legitimacy of elections was deeply unfortunate. The election was not stolen. The election was conducted under the Constitution. It was reviewed by the courts.” PBS NewsHour, 1 December 2022.
• On January 6th: “I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that we did our duty that day, under the Constitution.” Address at Georgetown University’s McCourt School, rebroadcast on Washington Journal, 19 October 2022.
Chad Pergram, Senior Congressional Correspondent, Fox News Channel
• On January 6th Committee evidence: “The Committee played new tape from Trump confidant Steve Bannon, who said the President never planned to leave office, no matter the election results.” Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News, 13 October 2022.
Nate Persily, Professor, Stanford University
• On the Arizona “audit”: “Audits are good things … That’s not what this was. This really was part of a coordinated disinformation campaign to try to undermine the legitimacy of the election. … The whole goal here … was to cast doubt on the basic machinery of this election.” PBS NewsHour, 24 September 2021.
• Cyber Ninjas “did not find the election was stolen … Biden actually increased his vote totals … confirms the results.” PBS NewsHour, 24 September 2021.
The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board
• “[Trump ally Doug] Mastriano’s relentless efforts to thwart the results of the 2020 presidential election, [and] spread Donald Trump’s election lies … [are] a 10‑alarm fire for anyone who believes in a functioning democracy.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 September 2022.
Politico
• On Trump’s post‑election narrative: “His own excuse narrative about why he lost in 2020.” Inside Politics with Manu Raju on CNN, 4 August 2024.
• Headline: “After Trump’s loss and false fraud claims, GOP outlines voter restrictions.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 19 March 2021.
• Headline: “Trump clings to false election claims at Arizona rally.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 25 July 2021.
• Referred to “the ongoing attempt to question and overturn legitimate election results.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 30 December 2021.
• On GOP candidates “rallying behind … Trump’s false assertions that the election was stolen…” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 23 August 2022.
Ramesh Ponnuru, Editor, National Review; Columnist, The Washington Post
• “He tried to overturn an election and he had a campaign of lies and conspiracy theories for two months … you had very few Republicans who were willing to stand up and say that what the President was saying was untrue.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 18 January 2021.
• “The votes in the 2020 election were legally cast and accurately counted, and Biden won … in the key states.” The Washington Post, 11 August 2023.
• On This Week: Some “think it’s rude to point out that he didn’t win in 2020…” This Week on ABC, 13 August 2023.
Senator Rob Portman (R‑OH)
• “There were not adequate irregularities or fraud — not widespread enough — to change the result of the election. Period. … We must recognize that this election was lost and that Joe Biden is now the legitimately elected President of the United States.” State of the Union on CNN, 31 January 2021.
Sidney Powell, Attorney for Donald Trump
• In court testimony: “No reasonable person would conclude that my statements were truly statements of fact.”
• Asked whether she was present when Trump was told he lost: “Oh, yeah. Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann, Derek Lyons all thought he had lost.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 14 November 2023.
R
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State
• “Every member of the [Georgia] delegation voted to certify their own election results with the same ballots, same machines, same electoral count as Trump.” Washington Journal, 7 November 2021.
Other statements by Raffensperger in this same interview included the following:
- “Dead people who voted … I believe … we’re up to four. But we never saw 10,000. We never saw 5,000 dead people. Less than five.”
- “In fact, no one ever called the Georgia Secretary of State and said they were told they couldn’t vote because somebody else had already voted in their name.”
- “We never received a report from certified accountants for the Trump campaign. If thousands had been turned away from the polls … [they] would have contacted our office.”
- “28,000 left [the] presidential election blank. Some Republicans running had 33,000 more votes than Trump. He was not as popular in Georgia as other Republican candidates.”
• “[Trump] said there were 10,000 dead people; there were less than five. He said there were thousands of felons and there was less than 74. He said there were 66,000 underage voters. There were zero. And so you run down every single rabbit trail. And none of it was ever supported by the facts.” Meet the Press on NBC, 31 October 2021.
Other statements by Raffensperger in this same interview included:
- “[Trump] came up 11,800 votes short.”
- “David Perdue got 20,000 more votes in the Atlanta area than Trump. That was the real story.”
• “Instead of thousands of dead people who have voted, we found two people who died and someone voted in their place… that’s two, not 5,000, not 10,000.” C‑SPAN, 20 April 2021.
Other statements by Raffensperger in this same interview included:
- “We had not a single underage voter vote in the State of Georgia.”
Manu Raju, Chief Congressional Correspondent, CNN
• Referred to “the same baseless conspiracy theories and lies that Donald Trump did — that the 2020 election was stolen, that there was widespread fraud that cost him the election….” Washington Week on PBS, 13 May 2022.
Senator Jack Reed (D‑RI)
• Referred to Trump’s “baseless lies.” U.S. Senate floor, 6 January 2022.
• “He repeatedly lied … clearly not the case. … Anyone who refused to subvert the election became a target of the insurrectionist mob. … Lies and misinformation … relentless lying since then …” U.S. Senate floor, 6 January 2022.
Diane Rehm, Host, On My Mind
• Referred to “Trump’s false claim of a rigged election.” On My Mind, 2 March 2021.
Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State
• “I am ready for a new generation of leadership. … I’ve made my views on January 6th very clear. It was a stain on American democracy. I cried that night. Because I thought to myself … I study countries that do this. I don’t live under a country that does this.” Amanpour on CNN, 25 July 2022.
Other statements by Rice in this same interview included:
- “I thank God for Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and also for Michael Pence. Because the American system held.”
Stephen Richer, Recorder, Maricopa County, Arizona
• Trump lost Maricopa County “by 45,000 votes. And those ballots were hand‑counted after tabulation.” 60 Minutes on CBS, 7 October 2024.
Other statements by Richer in this same interview included:
- “Statewide, prosecutions for illegal voting involved a total of 19 ballots.”
- “In Maricopa, 50 ballots were miscounted … and they were divided between the candidates. There were 2.1 million ballots. Fifty were miscounted and had no effect anyway before the hand count.”
- Interviewer: “What evidence of widespread fraud was found in Maricopa County in 2020?” Richer: “None. And I would say that Maricopa County’s election in 2020 was the most scrutinized election in human history. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was in the office looking at the very database that Trump said had been deleted. The ludicrous nature of it was offensive. This was as disprovable as saying that 2+2=5.”
- Interviewer: “So you’re saying that those election machines were secure?” Richer: “That’s a fact. Every single test has worked. … They went through federal certification; they went through state certification. They went through tests before the election. They went through a hand‑count audit by the political parties themselves and it always matched 100%.”
Denver Riggleman, former US Representative (R-VA); Senior Technical Advisor, January 6 Committee
• “You had multiple people in Trump’s inner circle telling him it was false, it wasn’t fact.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 14 June 2022.
• On Antrim County claims: “You’re talking about fake data that is then presented as real data.” Frontline, “Michael Flynn’s Holy War,” PBS, 18 October 2022.
Senator Mitt Romney (R‑UT)
• “There’s been no evidence of widespread fraud. Actually, most of the evidence so far has been Republicans trying to corrupt the election. And yet they continue to put it out there and to promote it….” C‑SPAN, 23 November 2023.
Jeffrey Rosen, former Acting U.S. Attorney General
• “The President would say, ‘People are telling me this,’ or ‘I heard this’ … and we were in a position to say our people have already looked at that. And we know that you’re getting bad information … it’s been demonstrated to be incorrect … it’s been debunked.” January 6th Committee hearing, C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
• “Well of course Judge Luttig played such a crucial role in preserving the integrity of the last presidential election.” Velshi on MSNBC, 16 October 2022.
Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush
• Regarding Freedom Caucus members opposing McCarthy: “These are the ‘constitutionalists.’ But they’re the people who did NOT participate in backing up the Constitution on January 6th.” Journal Editorial Report on Fox News, 17 December 2022.
• On Trump’s false claims: “We did have the recitation that he did actually win the 2020 election, and that he had won it by a lot. … You didn’t win the election. You aren’t President of the United States.” Fox News interview (re‑aired on Morning Joe), 7 March 2023.
• “[The mob that] violently attacked the Capitol … is a stain on our history, and … send them to jail.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 4 April 2024.
Philip Rucker, Senior VP at CNN; former National Editor at The Washington Post
• “Trump “tried to sow doubt, tried to promulgate the Big Lie he had won the election when in fact he had lost the election…” PBS NewsHour, 1 November 2021.
Paul Ryan, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
• “I think those things are dangerous. Calling into question legitimacy of elections, which were won fairly, based on just the political interests of one guy is, frankly, ridiculous to me.” The Washington Post Magazine, 25 December 2022.
S
Larry Sabato, Professor of Political Science, University of Virginia
• Some Trump supporters “will always be willing to argue that there was voter fraud when their candidates lose. This is nonsense. And more and more people understand that it’s nonsense. There’s no truth to it.” The Situation Room on CNN, 12 November 2022.
Senator Ben Sasse (R‑NE)
• “Last year, we had a president who disgraced his office by trying to steal an election.” U.S. Senate floor, 13 January 2022.
• “Shameful mob violence … it happened because the President lied to you.” Washington Week on PBS, 5 February 2021.
Dan Scavino, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff (under Trump)
• Under oath, Scavino testified there was not fraud significant enough to affect the outcome of the election. This Week on ABC, 7 January 2024.
Joe Scarborough, Host, Morning Joe
• Referred to Trump “still complaining about an election that everyone knew that he lost.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 30 August 2022.
Senator Tim Scott (R‑SC)
• Asked if Biden was the legitimate president: “Of course he is.” Face the Nation on CBS, 2 May 2021.
• Mike Pence “absolutely” did the right thing to certify the 2020 election on January 6. State of the Union on CNN, 18 February 2024.
• “Well, certainly we expect a fair and honest election, and as a result of that expectation, we will certify the election….” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 28 May 2024.
Gerald Seib, Executive Washington Editor, The Wall Street Journal
• “In the end, Donald Trump lost. … Yes, he lost.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 9 May 2022.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R‑TX)
• “When I have presented information to the FBI … we did not call it vote fraud. We called it abnormalities, inconsistencies and irregularities. … I did not call this fraud.” U.S. House hearing, 11 August 2022.
Rina Shah, Political Strategist
• Trump supporters are “people who don’t have contact with reality.” Velshi on MSNBC, 30 March 2024.
Ira Shapiro, former U.S. Trade Ambassador
• “Senate Republicans failed the country at a catastrophic level by not stopping Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy …” German Marshall Fund event, C‑SPAN, 31 October 2022.
Michael Scherer, National Political Reporter, The Washington Post
• Referred to “denial of the election results.” Washington Post Live, 24 April 2024.
Senator Tina Smith (D‑MN)
• Referred to claims “falsely that the election had been stolen…” U.S. Senate floor, 6 January 2022.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D‑CA)
• “The Big Lie has now been endorsed by the majority of members on the Republican side in the House of Representatives. … They know the election wasn’t stolen. … And yet they will continue to mouth those words…” Reliable Sources on CNN, 1 August 2021.
Timothy Snyder, Professor of History, Yale University
• “One party … lying about the vote … a two‑party system, and one of the parties is lining up against democracy … democracy cannot be taken for granted.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 26 September 2021.
Robby Soave, Senior Editor, Reason Magazine
• On the term “the Big Lie”: “There are any number of lies, claims Trump has made that are lies … so I think ‘Trump’s election lies’ is probably a better way to talk about it.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 19 June 2022.
Brian Stelter, former Host, Reliable Sources on CNN
• “His claims of fraud ARE the fraud.” Reliable Sources on CNN (rebroadcast), 17 October 2021.
Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 Campaign Manager
• Described the campaign’s post‑election trajectory as “very, very, very bleak.” January 6th Committee Hearing, broadcast on C‑SPAN, 13 June 2022.
Other statements by Stepien during this hearing included:
- On claims of thousands of ineligible voters in Arizona: “This wild claim didn’t seem realistic or possible to me. The reality was not illegal citizens voting in the election.”
- Stepien wanted to protect his “reputation for being honest and professional. And I didn’t think that what was happening was either honest or professional… so that led to me stepping away.”
Margaret Sullivan, former Media Columnist, The Washington Post
• “We need to tell people that they are lying about elections … we need to be clear about that lie — and it is a lie — to counter it all of the time. … We’re on the side of truth.” PBS News Hour, 13 November 2022.
Kara Swisher, Journalist, The New York Times
• “It all starts with Donald Trump, and all the lies and misinformation…” Amanpour on CNN, 11 January 2021.
Charlie Sykes, Editor‑at‑Large, The Bulwark
• Liz Cheney was cast aside “for one reason and one reason only — because she refuses to go along with Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the election…” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 21 May 2021.
• “This has been his big obsession; the Big Lie.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 28 May 2022.
• On Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos: He “funded a costly, bogus investigation that found absolutely no fraud whatsoever.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 4 August 2022.
T
Jake Tapper, News Anchor, CNN
• “There is a majority of Republican voters out there who think falsely that the election was stolen.” State of the Union on CNN, 17 October 2021.
Mark Thiessen, Columnist, The Washington Post; Fox News Contributor
• “I’m not a never‑Trumper. But the election denial put people over the edge. … In 2020, voters didn’t reject Trumpism; they rejected Trump. … Trump lost in 2020. He lost in 2020 because he lost 43,000 swing voters in swing states.” America’s Newsroom on Fox News, 9 November 2022; Morning Joe on MSNBC, 26 January 2024.
Cal Thomas, Syndicated Columnist
• “I want to see the evidence. … I’ve heard a lot of gossip … but I want to see hard evidence.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 6 June 2021.
• “Show me the evidence; don’t just show me these websites that indulge in conspiracy theories.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 6 June 2021.
• Referred to “the so‑called stolen election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 19 July 2024.
Senator John Thune (R‑SD)
• What Trump did “to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transition of power is inexcusable.” PBS NewsHour, 7 March 2024.
• “I’ve never second guessed the outcome of the 2020 election.” PBS News Hour, 22 June 2021.
Senator Pat Toomey (R‑PA)
• “The evidence is overwhelming that Joe Biden won this election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 3 January 2021.
• “In my mind, it’s very clear; Joe Biden won the election…” State of the Union on CNN, 26 September 2021.
Ivanka Trump, former Senior Advisor to the President
• “I respected Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying,” referring to Barr’s conclusion that the stolen‑election allegations were false. January 6th Committee hearing, C‑SPAN, 9 June 2022.
Karen Tumulty, Columnist, The Washington Post
• “It has become practically an article of faith in the Republican Party that if you want to have a shot at elective office, you have to say these things that really undermine the integrity of the electoral system.” PBS NewsHour, 8 October 2021.
Katy Tur, Anchor, MSNBC
• “Biden won and Trump refused to concede…” Katy Tur Reports on MSNBC, 15 May 2024; MediaBuzz on Fox News, 19 May 2024.
Jonathan Turley, Professor of Law; Fox News Contributor
• “What was clear … is that Pence really was a profile in courage. He was that redeeming moment.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 19 June 2022.
U
Rep. Fred Upton (R‑MI)
• “Nobody has ever produced any evidence at all that the election was stolen….” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 4 April 2022.
W
Michael Waldman, President, Brennan Center for Justice
• “As Donald Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security and many, many courts confirmed, it was the most secure election on record.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 19 January 2022.
The Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board
• “The 2020 election wasn’t stolen … even if he knows he’s misleading his followers. … Mr. Trump’s behavior on that day and since is a reason not to trust him with the presidency ever again.” The Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2022.
• “Mr. Trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on Jan. 6, and he is still doing it.” The Wall Street Journal, 10 June 2022.
• “The Justice Department and Mr. Trump’s own campaign repeatedly told him that his fraud claims were without basis.” The Wall Street Journal, 10 June 2022.
Chris Wallace, Journalist
• “I’m fine with opinion … but when people start to question the truth — who won the 2020 election? … I found that unsustainable.” The New York Times, 27 March 2022.
Joe Walsh, former U.S. Representative (R‑IL)
• “Donald Trump led a conspiracy to overthrow an American election.” Velshi on MSNBC, 13 August 2022.
Amy Walter, Editor‑in‑Chief, The Cook Political Report
• “We know that that’s not really the case. We’ve had multiple instances of the courts and of recounts … finding no fraud, no problems. In fact, it’s remarkable to me [during the] pandemic, that everything went as smoothly as it did.” PBS NewsHour, 31 May 2021.
Rep. Zach Wamp (R‑TN)
• “Partisan politics should not trump, no pun intended, the actual results of the election. … There were 50 court cases and there was no fraud that would have affected the results. … We did not have fraud in the 2020 election at any significant level anywhere in the country.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 23 December 2022.
• “We do this better than anybody in the world.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 20 June 2024.
• On free and fair elections: “You can’t argue … our adherence to those principles. So we are exceptional there….” Ford Presidential Center event, C‑SPAN, 20 September 2024.
Senator Mark Warner (D‑VA)
• Referred to “the Big Lie” and the “lie that our elections are not secure.” U.S. Senate floor, 6 January 2022.
The Washington Times
• “Protesters marched up Pennsylvania Avenue after the president told rallygoers about claims of election theft. None has been proved, a Washington Times analysis shows.” The Washington Times, 15 April 2021.
David Wasserman, Senior Editor, The Cook Political Report
• “Why should anyone believe the conspiracy theories that one side is putting forward about election administration, particularly when there are many layers of safeguards in place to ensure that votes are counted fairly and accurately? … These theories … are so preposterous that there’s only one possible explanation … the losers of those elections didn’t like the result.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 16 April 2024.
• “I still have a great deal of faith in our elections administrators at the state and local level to conduct a fair and accurate election.” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 16 April 2024.
Peter Wehner, Writer, The Atlantic
• “There’s no evidence that the election was stolen or rigged.” Reliable Sources on CNN, 16 May 2021.
Christie Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey
• “Republican leaders in the House and in many states have now turned belief in conspiracy theories and lies about stolen elections into a litmus test for membership and running for office. … House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy … embraces Mr. Trump’s lies…” Los Angeles Times, 11 October 2021.
Chad Wolf, former Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (Trump Administration)
• He “did not dispute the results of the election. He said his department was preparing for the orderly and smooth transition to President‑elect Biden’s DHS team … not on board with the attempted coup.” Morning Joe on MSNBC, 29 July 2022.
Scott Wong, Senior Congressional Reporter, The Hill
• On Liz Cheney: She was “at odds over this question about President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. President Trump … has been saying, with no evidence, that this election was stolen…” Washington Journal on C‑SPAN, 12 May 2021.
Judy Woodruff, Anchor and Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour
• Referred to “the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent, that actually President Trump won. We know that that is not true…” PBS NewsHour.
Bob Woodward, Associate Editor, The Washington Post
• Senators Mike Lee and Lindsey Graham “investigated these claims of the stolen election and found zero evidence to support that.” Washington Week on PBS, 24 September 2021.
• “Trump is staking his claim now that the election was stolen. Well, he lost. He did not win. … There is zero evidence. It just doesn’t pass the common‑sense test. … It really was sedition.” PBS NewsHour, 8 June 2022.
Y
John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel
• “I really disagree with [Trump lawyer John Eastman] on the facts. I don’t think that there was any finding of fraud … that could have changed the election.” Federalist Society event, UC Berkeley, 24 August 2023.
Other statements by Yoo at this event include:
- On Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s claims of election fraud: “He basically said lots of things that turned out to be untrue … he had no factual basis for making those statements … he never produces [evidence], or the stories change.”
Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent, Washington Examiner
• On Giuliani’s false claims about Georgia election workers: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that he did defame the two people who sued him.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 17 December 2023.
• “There has never been any evidence that it would have changed [the results] in any of these five states, including Georgia.” MediaBuzz on Fox News, 17 December 2023.
Z
Fareed Zakaria, Host, GPS on CNN
• On efforts to overturn the election: “[Trump sought to] nullify a legitimate election and thus overthrow an elected government.” GPS on CNN, 17 January 2020.
Other statements by Zakaria on this same program include:
- “No Republican who was defeated in the 2020 election as a challenger even alleged that they lost because votes were rigged in favor of Democrats.”
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The foregoing list of statements can be downloaded as a PDF here. We welcome any questions or suggestions for improvements regarding the Project: research@newstatecraft.org.