Trump’s Falsehood-Filled ‘Save America’ Rally

Prior to the violence that disrupted Congress’ counting of the electoral votes, President Donald Trump gave an indignant speech filled with falsehoods about the presidential election he lost two months ago to Democrat Joe Biden.

“Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy,” Trump told his supporters at a “Save America” rally. “After this, we’re going to walk down [to the Capitol] and I’ll be there with you.”

Trump wasn’t there with them. But that was the least of his false statements on a day when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and halted the constitutionally mandated counting of electoral votes in a joint session of the House and Senate.

The president made numerous false claims of election fraud in several swing states that decided the Nov. 3 election:

• Vice President Mike Pence, who presides over the counting of the electoral votes, directly contradicted Trump’s baseless claim that somehow Pence could overturn the election results and declare Trump the winner.
• Trump falsely claimed that Pennsylvania had “205,000 more ballots then [it] had voters.” That figure comes from a flawed partisan analysis that was “based on incomplete and inaccurate data,” according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
• He falsely claimed that “more than 10,000 votes in Pennsylvania were illegally counted, even though they were received after Election Day.” About 10,000 ballots arrived within three days after the election, but they have not been counted, pending a court ruling.
• Trump reprised a familiar false claim about “thousands” of dead people voting, as many as 8,000 in Pennsylvania and 10,300 in Georgia. But there has been only one verified report in Pennsylvania, as of Dec. 20, and two in Georgia.
• Trump wrongly claimed that in Georgia “an illegal and unconstitutional settlement agreement … drastically weakened signature verification.” The state strengthened its signature matching processes, says Georgia’s Republican secretary of state.
• The president falsely claimed that “Georgia’s absentee ballot rejection rate was more than 10 times lower than previous levels.” He is wrongly comparing the rate of ballots rejected for signature issues in this election — which is roughly the same rate it has been in recent elections — to the number of ballots rejected in past elections for all reasons, usually for being received too late.
• He falsely claimed that Republican poll watchers in Fulton County, Georgia, were told to leave “under the false pretense of a pipe burst” and then election officials pulled “suitcases of ballots out from under a table.” Poll watchers were not told to leave after a water leak, and videos show boxes of legitimate ballots –not “fraudulent” ones — pulled from under a table.