Food For Thought During the Debate -- How Can You Rig an Election?

Think about this when you hear CNN and Biden claims that there is no evidence of a stolen election.

During tonight’s debate, I expect the CNN moderators advocates to question Trump aggressively about his claims that the 2020 election was rigged. We can expect that both of them – and Biden – will argue that there is “no evidence” to support these supposedly “false claims.” When you hear that, know that they are lying to you.

CNN has a history of falsely claiming that there is “no evidence” of election rigging.

CNN’s precedent for these loaded and misleading questions/arguments was on display during the townhall meeting with Trump that it sponsored in Manchester, New Hampshire on May 10, 2023. 

Kaitlan Collins, whom the Washington Post described as a CNN “rising star,” “moderated” the town hall. This is from the Post’s description of what happened:

As the crowd cheered throughout Trump’s boasts and falsehoods, Collins repeatedly pushed back when Trump said the 2020 election was “stolen.”

“The election was not rigged, Mr. President,” Collins said. “You can’t keep saying that all night long.”

But he did. As Trump made unfounded claims about the 2020 election, Collins interrupted him and said, “Mr. President, I have to stop you there because there is no evidence of that.”

Do not be misled when they try this tactic again. CNN’s propaganda that there is “no evidence” that the election was rigged is simply untrue for at least two reasons. 

There was evidence of election rigging in 2020, even though the evidence was never fully developed and presented in a trial.

First, there was evidence of election rigging in 2020, but Collins apparently does not know what no evidence means. There is a world of difference between no evidence versus insufficient evidence to convince someone that the election was rigged. 

Serious and honest people cannot deny that there was some evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. There have been plenty of reports from number of different states that signatures on mail-in ballots were not verified as required by state law, of voters whose addresses and identities could not be verified, of GOP poll monitors being ejected from locations where ballots were still being counted even as their Democrat counterparts were allowed to stay, of stuffed drop boxes, of Democrat secretaries of state not following state laws in certifying results, and more. It is far beyond the scope of this short article to analyze whether these tactics affected the election sufficiently to change the outcome. In any event, the information necessary to definitively conclude whether or not these tactics were successful in altering the outcome is not available. The point for present purposes is that these and other tools to maximize the number of votes counted for Biden most certainly did occur. So, there was some evidence of this kind of election rigging – we just don’t know if it was outcome determinative.

And while we’re on it, you probably will hear tonight that “more than sixty courts have dismissed the Trump’s stolen election claims.” If you do hear that, remember that not a single one of those 60+ cases was ever tried on the merits. Most, such as the one brought by the State of Texas, were dismissed for procedure or other technical reasons, such as lack of standing. 

Thus, Trump and the other plaintiffs never got to engage in the full discovery that is necessary to prove such a complex case, including comprehensive document requests, subpoenas to third parties, depositions, and the other discovery tools that are routinely available to other litigants. All that normal litigation process would have taken many months at a minimum. No jury or judge ever had the opportunity to consider all the relevant evidence and make a finding as to whether it was sufficient to show that the election was “stolen.”

In short, Trump’s “stolen election” claims haven never been fairly and fully litigated.

CNN ignores the non-traditional methods of rigging the election.

There is a second reason why CNN’s claim that there is “no evidence of a stolen election” is false. The Democrats have come up with a variety of ways to rig the election besides the “traditional” methods of dead people voting, forged signatures, ineligible people voting, others voting multiple times, and other such stuff, as discussed above.  

CNN ignores these methods of election rigging. However, not only is there evidence of such election rigging tactics, but that evidence is virtually undisputed. That was true in 2020 and it is true today. But CNN brushes it aside with its “no evidence” claims.

The lawfare against Trump where the Democrats attempt to tie him up in court and silence him with gag orders, while compliant Democrat secretaries of state try to keep him off ballots certainly qualifies as election rigging.

But consider just one other example of such rigging that everyone knows about by now – the widespread lies that Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” was a Russian plant, and that Trump was colluding with the Russians in such tactics. As we all now know, 51 intelligence officers, including some who were CIA contractors at the time, signed a letter trying to persuade the voting public that the laptop was Russian disinformation.  Not coincidentally, their letter was just published just three days before a Trump-Biden debate when Biden used that false letter to support his lie that the laptop was not Hunter’s. Here is what he said about the laptop during the debate:

There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani. 

But it has been well established, most recently by Biden’s own Department of Justice, that the laptop was Hunter’s. And they, the FBI, and the CIA knew that when the letter was published and when Biden lied about it during the debate.

There have been studies showing that this lie about Russian collusion did swing the election in Biden’s favor.

And the lie continues.  To my knowledge the 51 signers have not repudiated their lie and the former Director of National Intelligence, the despicable James Clapper, has expressly refused to do so when he was given the opportunity. He even said that he did not regret signing the letter. So that was non-traditional election rigging in 2020 and it continues today.

Let’s face it — neither of the CNN moderators nor Trump are ever going to admit that there is any evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. But remember these facts when they lie to you about it.