Recently I wrote in the NSS (Feb. 2): “Any doubt that Mr. Trump in fact lost the 2020 election fair and square to Joe Biden, by a 306 to 232 electoral vote margin, is answered by a chart appearing in The January 6 Report (available from Celadon Books).” Following up, here are six examples from the chart of election lies refuted to Mr. Trump’s face by his own government or by Georgia’s officials (Report pp. 22-27). In each case Mr. Trump soon went on to knowingly and fraudulently repeat the same lie he knew had been discredited. He also repeated the same lies in his speech January 6, 2021, to incite his supporters to go up to the Capitol and stop the Constitutionally mandated Congressional electoral count for the peaceful transfer of power to the new President, Joe Biden:
Georgia election lie #1: Trump (12/15/20): “I saw it on the videotape, somebody delivering a suitcase of ballots.” Deputy AG Jeff Rosen’s response to Trump: “And we said it wasn’t a suitcase. It was a bin. That’s what they use when they are counting the ballots. It’s benign.” Yet, Trump knowingly repeated the lie a week later (12/22/20), saying: “There’s even camera security footage from Georgia that shows officials telling poll watchers to leave the room before pulling suitcases of ballots out from under the tables and continuing to count for hours.”
GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also responded to Trump (01/2/21): “You’re talking about the State Farm video. …Rudy Giuliani or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context. …[W]e did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times…. Yes, Mr. President, we’ll send you the link”. Trump: “I don’t care about the link. I don’t need it.” Yet, Mr. Trump knowingly repeated the lie the next day (01/3/21), saying: “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger…. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam….’” Trump then knowingly repeated the same lie about Raffensperger in his speech at the Ellipse to incite the crowd January 6, 2021.
Georgia election lie #2: Trump (01/2/21): “So dead people voted, and I think it’s close to 5,000 people.” Raffensperger’s response to Trump: “The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. So that’s wrong.” Yet, Mr. Trump knowingly expanded on the lie four days later in his January 6 speech to incite his followers, saying: “Over 10,300 ballots in Georgia were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Georgia residents who died in 2020 and prior to the election.”
Georgia election lie #3: Trump (01/2/21): “You had out-of-state voters. They voted in Georgia, but were from out of state, of 4,925.” Response by General Counsel Ryan Germany in the GA Secretary of State’s office to Trump: “They moved back in years ago. This was not like something just before the election. So …it’s just not accurate.” Yet, Mr. Trump knowingly expanded on the lie four days later to incite his followers on January 6, declaring: “And at least 15,000 ballots were cast by individuals who moved out of the state prior to November 3rd election.”
The Detroit election lie: AG Bill Barr’s response to Mr. Trump’s allegations (12/1/20): “Then [Trump] raised the ‘big vote dump,’ as he called it, in Detroit. …[H]e said, people saw boxes coming into the counting station at all hours of the morning…. I said, ‘Mr. President: there are 630 precincts in Detroit, …they centralize the counting…and so the normal process would involve boxes coming in at all different hours. …’ Did anyone point out to you, you actually did better in Detroit than you did last time? I mean, there’s no indication of fraud in Detroit.’” Yet, Trump knowingly repeated the lie the next day (12/2/20): “This is Michigan. At 6:31 in the morning, a vote dump of 149,772 votes came in unexpectedly.” Then he repeated the lie again January 6 to incite his volatile supporters.
The Pennsylvania election lie: Acting Deputy AG Richard Donoghue’s response to Trump (01/3/21): “[W]e would say to [Trump], you know, ‘We checked that out, and there’s nothing to it…. … Pennsylvania, right. ‘No, there were not 250,000 more votes reported than were cast. That’s not true.’” Yet, Trump knowingly repeated the lie three days later on January 6 to incite his supporters, saying: “In Pennsylvania, you had 205,000 more votes than you had voters.”
The Dominion voting machines lie: AG Barr’s response to Trump (11/23/20): “I specifically raised the Dominion voting machines…. …I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations. …I told him that was crazy stuff….” Yet, Mr. Trump knowingly repeated the lie three days later (11/26/20): “[T]hose machines are fixed, they’re rigged. You can press Trump and the vote goes to Biden….”
GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also responded to Trump: “I don’t believe that you’re really questioning the Dominion machines. Because we did a hand re-tally, a 100 percent re-tally of all the ballots, and compared them to what the machines came up with virtually the same result.” Trump knowingly repeated the lie to incite his volatile followers January 6, saying: “In addition, there is the highly troubling matter of Dominion Voting Systems. …There is clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to former Vice President Biden in several counties in Georgia.” Thus enraged, Mr. Trump’s followers then rioted at the Capitol to stop the Constitutionally mandated electoral count. Mr. Trump attempted through lies to throw an election to himself he did not win. The attempted steal was his.
Earlier I wrote: “Such a documented history of shameless mendacity on the part of any person anywhere—much less by a former President of the United States—would be astounding.” And dangerous. Seven people died resulting from the riot Mr. Trump intentionally fueled by his election lies. But for Vice President Mike Pence’s integrity (who Mr. Trump remarked January 6 probably deserved to be hanged), we all would have lost our American Constitution. Forever. Mr. Trump succeeded for a time through lies and violence in stopping the peaceful, Constitutionally-mandated electoral count for the transfer of power.
Robert P. Wise is a Northsider.
