Trump Recycles 2020 Election Allegations

As originally conceived by its inventors, the concept of the “big lie” is supposed to be a tale so audacious and captivating that people can’t doubt it. Its unbelievability is its power — so impossible that it will change public beliefs. After three years, though, former president Donald Trump and his allies haven’t enlarged the lie about the 2020 election being “stolen.” Instead, they have resorted to merely repeating the same tired and long-disproven assertions. The once-fantastical lie that the 2020 election was somehow “stolen” from President Trump through voting-machine irregularities, foreign intervention, or out-and-out fraud has become repetitive, boring, and sad.

These fabricated assertions were certainly entertaining at first — like the water fixtures in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Every 15 to 30 minutes, jets of water spray up, down, and rotate in a rhythmic and visually amusing pattern. But one can’t watch it for very long before the patterns become predictable and boring. The big lie about the 2020 election, repeated now for more than three years, has brought forward no proof and nothing that hasn’t been publicly known since January 2021. The current variations, on display regularly during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign thus far, are merely part of the dancing fountain of lies that have been disproven by the count, the recount, and the audit of the 2020 vote in Georgia. Not one single shred of evidence has been offered in its support, in my state or in any other.

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Brad Raffensperger

Brad Raffensperger is the secretary of state for Georgia.

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As originally conceived by its inventors, the concept of the “big lie” is supposed to be a tale so audacious and captivating that people can’t doubt it. Its unbelievability is its power — so impossible that it will change public beliefs. After three years, though, former president Donald Trump and his allies haven’t enlarged the lie about the 2020 election being “stolen.” Instead, they have resorted to merely repeating the same tired and long-disproven assertions. The once-fantastical lie that the 2020 election was somehow “stolen” from President Trump through voting-machine irregularities, foreign intervention, or out-and-out fraud has become repetitive, boring, and sad.

These fabricated assertions were certainly entertaining at first — like the water fixtures in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Every 15 to 30 minutes, jets of water spray up, down, and rotate in a rhythmic and visually amusing pattern. But one can’t watch it for very long before the patterns become predictable and boring. The big lie about the 2020 election, repeated now for more than three years, has brought forward no proof and nothing that hasn’t been publicly known since January 2021. The current variations, on display regularly during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign thus far, are merely part of the dancing fountain of lies that have been disproven by the count, the recount, and the audit of the 2020 vote in Georgia. Not one single shred of evidence has been offered in its support, in my state or in any other.