There are many reasons why people support former President Trump. This post is not about Trump’s policies, which may or may not be commendable. It is not about his business practices. It is not about his children. It is not about his marriage or sex life. This post is about Trump’s incessant claims of election fraud.
I will begin with three basic points. (These points are taken from a previous post.)
I. Trump has been claiming election fraud for years.
- After Obama’s victory in 2012, he said, “This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!”1
- He claimed Ted Cruz only won in the 2016 Iowa Caucus because of fraud: “The State of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz from the most recent election on the basis that he cheated – a total fraud!”2
- After his victory in 2016, he claimed that Hillary Clinton received millions of illegal votes. He tweeted, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”3
Many more examples could be added to this list. What can we say about these allegations? First, anyone in a competition can claim that their opponent has cheated. That’s the easy part. The hard part is providing evidence. As far as I know, Trump has never done the hard part.
Second, just because we don’t like the result, doesn’t mean we can accuse our opponent of cheating. Imagine if every professional team that lost a game responded the same way. Coaches and players would be shouting, “They only won because they cheated.” If this behavior spread to other teams, all trust in competition would be eroded. What would be the point of even starting the game? Eventually, the NBA, MLB, and NFL would cease to exist.
Are there times when cheating must be investigated? Yes, but those are exceptions and they must have legitimate claims. Furthermore, if the same coach made this claim every time his team lost, we would know that the problem lies with him not the other team. Undoubtedly, the owner would fire him quickly.
Most of the time, the losing team accepts the results, and perhaps even commends the winning team. Don’t coaches around the world teach young people to shake hands with their opponents after the game? There are rules to athletic competitions. In general, we don’t end games with accusations of cheating. Likewise, there are rules to elections in democracies. Repeatedly claiming “fraud” is foul play.
Third, Trump has been making these claims for years. How can we take these claims seriously? How can we not think of the boy who cried “Wolf”?
Fourth, “giving false testimony” against a neighbor violates one of the Ten Commandments. If Trump claimed, for example, that Ted Cruz cheated, and Cruz didn’t cheat, Trump would be guilty of bearing false testimony. These claims should not be thrown around lightly.
II. Prior to the 2020 presidential election, Trump spread doubts about the integrity of the election.
- On July 30, he tweeted, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”4
- In Wisconsin on August 17 he said, “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged, remember that.”5
- He repeated the same assertion on August 24 at the Republican National Convention: “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”6
Thus, Trump stated months in advance that he was not going to accept an outcome in favor of Biden. According to Trump, any such outcome was automatically rigged.
During the presidential debate, Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would accept the results of the election. Trump replied, “I will look at it at the time” then he continued by asserting the corruption of the voting system and media.7 However, based on Trump’s previous statements, what he really meant was, “If Biden wins, I will not accept the results.”
This is also foul play. Imagine the sports scenario once again. It’s better not to play than to play like this.
III. After Biden was declared the winner on November 7, Trump remained true to his previous statements and declared that the election was rigged.
- On November 16, Trump tweeted, “I won the Election!”8
- On December 15, Trump tweeted, “This is BIG NEWS. Dominion Voting Machines are a disaster all over the Country. Changed the results of a landslide election. Can’t let this happen. Thank you for the genius, bravery, and patriotism of the Judge. Should get a medal!”9
- On December 15, he said, “Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud. There has never been anything like this in our Country!”9
- At 8:17 a.m. on January 6, Trump tweeted, “States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”10
- At 9:00 a.m. on January 6, he tweeted: “They just happened to find 50,000 ballots late last night. The USA is embarrassed by fools. Our Election Process is worse than that of third world countries!”10
- At 9:15 a.m. on January 6, Trump tweeted: “The States want to redo their votes. They found out they voted on a FRAUD. Legislatures never approved. Let them do it. BE STRONG!”10
- Trump’s rally speech on January 6 focused on election fraud. Near the beginning, he asserts:
All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing. And stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.
Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal. Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election.”
He continues, “Over the past several weeks, we’ve amassed overwhelming evidence about a fake election. This is the presidential election. Last night was a little bit better because of the fact that we had a lot of eyes watching one specific state, but they cheated like hell anyway.11
- He continued his speech by making specific claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona.
- At 6:01 p.m. on January 6, Trump tweeted, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”10
So Trump was still claiming that he won almost two months after Biden was declared the winner. Moreover, in Trump’s mind, the violence at the Capitol— “These are the thing and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away”—was a direct consequence of an unfair election. And why did the people believe “a landslide election victory” was “viciously stripped away”? Because Trump repeatedly made that claim, including in tweets on January 6.
Conclusion
Why am I writing about this now? Three reasons. First, I recently learned that a group of conservatives, including federal judges, have rebutted each of Trump’s fraud claims in a 72-page document. (One of the signatories is former federal judge, Michael Luttig, who gave an insightful interview regarding the 2020 election with PBS.) You can download the full report at lostnotstolen.org. What does this show? You can be a Republican and reject Trump’s insistent claims of fraud.
Allow me to add a qualification. Everything I have written does not necessarily mean that the 2020 election was spotless. It means that Trump’s history of making allegations, along with his lack of proof, as well as the repudiation of his claims by respected conservatives disqualify him from being taken seriously on this matter. He is simply not the right person to make this claim.
Second, the way Trump is playing the game of politics is especially dangerous to the future of democracy. What if Democrats begin playing the same way? Where will the U.S. be in a few years? I know that some Democrats believed there was voter fraud in the 2004 election when Bush defeated Kerry.12 But I believe Trump is the first president to make this claim, at least in recent history. And he has made it incessantly, in a way that stirs up crowds with anger. No matter who makes the claim, in a democracy, it must be made with the utmost of integrity and seriousness. Otherwise, it is reckless and may put the country in peril.
Third, believers in Christ should resist lies because we serve a God who does not lie (Titus 1:2). No matter how many times we hear a falsehood, we must reject it because repeating a lie doesn’t make it true. Even though Trump was told he didn’t win the election, he insisted, “I won the Election.” What can we call this but a lie? Even if Trump really believed that he won, he was self-deluded or lying to himself.
Again, there may be reasons to support Trump, but his claims of election fraud should not be not one of them.
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Footnotes
After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I served as a high school Bible teacher in Asia. I enjoy traveling, writing, and playing the drums. My latest book focuses on Paul’s work as a tentmaker and what it means for today.
- mashable.com[↩]
- thetrumparchive.com[↩]
- Trump’s twitter account has been suspended; see American Presidency Project[↩]
- American Presidency Project[↩]
- realclearpolitics.org[↩]
- bbc.com[↩]
- PBS[↩]
- American Presidency Project[↩]
- American Presidency Project[↩][↩]
- American Presidency Project[↩][↩][↩][↩]
- CBS[↩]
- politico[↩]