President Trump claims cover-up of Chinese election interference by so-called ‘deep state’
In a prime-time address to the nation, President Trump claimed that the so-called “deep state” was hiding evidence of Chinese election interference.
President Donald Trump revisited his long-standing, unsubstantiated claim that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden in a prime-time address on July 16.
Trump has long maintained that the election was stolen, even though courts, election officials and investigators have found no evidence that fraud changed the outcome. These allegations sparked a massive campaign to challenge Biden’s victory, culminating in criminal investigations, legal battles, and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Here are eight of the most important claims and actions related to President Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election results.
1. Allegations that fraudulent mail-in voting is rampantEven before the 2020 election, President Trump ramped up baseless claims about mail-in voting, making misleading and conspiratorial statements alleging that West Virginia mail carriers were “selling ballots” and claiming mail-in ballots were being dumped in “rivers” and “creeks.”
2. Georgia’s “Find 11,780 Vote” call (January 2, 2021)A recording of President Trump’s phone call pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger later became the center of the Fulton County extortion case. In a phone call in early January 2021, he pressed Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to secure victory in the state.
3. Fake electoral plan (December 2020-January 2021)Republican officials in seven states, directed by Trump’s personal lawyer, created fraudulent electoral certification certificates to falsely claim Trump had been re-elected. The Trump campaign is arranging to send alternate elector certificates to Vice President Mike Pence by January 6, in time for Congress to certify the electors. Architect Kenneth Chesebro later pleaded guilty in Georgia.
4. Pressure on state officials and CongressMr. Trump has repeatedly called on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to call a special legislative session to overturn the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory in that state, and has made a similar appeal to the speaker of the Pennsylvania state legislature. In a conference call, he called on 300 Republican state legislators to find a way to overturn the election results certified in their states. Similar pressure was applied to Michigan officials in the White House.
5. Department of Justice pressure campaignImmediately after his defeat, Trump began to have unsubstantiated questions about the legitimacy of the election and called acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen almost daily as he investigated the 2020 election. The Justice Department’s draft letter urging the Georgia Legislature to convene a special session on the election was never sent because Rosen and his deputy refused to sign it.
6. Plan to allege foreign interference and seize voting machinesThe memo, dated Dec. 18, 2020, proposed that the Trump administration seek evidence of foreign interference favorable to Biden and laid out plans by Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller to use the authority of the National Security Agency and the Pentagon to seize phone and email records. The president’s team at the time also developed a plan to have federal authorities seize voting machines from states where the election was close but Biden won.
7. Eastman’s “Senate President” StrategyJohn Eastman’s plan for Pence to deny or delay the counting of electoral votes on January 6th (later described in the House January 6th Committee Final Report) identifies attorney Kenneth Chesebro as the original architect of a parallel plan to track fake electors.
8. January 6th and the Capitol riotOn January 6, 2021, just hours before Congress was scheduled to certify the Electoral College results, President Trump spoke at the Save America Rally, which began at the Ellipse Park near the White House. Trump spoke with his supporters for more than an hour, insisting the election was stolen.
“Our country has had enough,” President Trump said. “We’re not going to accept that anymore. That’s what this is all about. To use your favorite phrase that you guys have actually come up with, we’re going to stop stealing.”
Contributors: Joey Garrison, Bert Jansen and Josh Meyer for USA TODAY
