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Right-wing media are already claiming the 2024 election will be stolen

Written by Sophie Lawton & Jacina Hollins-Borges

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Right-wing media figures and allies of former President Donald Trump are laying the groundwork to claim that Democrats are scheming to steal the 2024 election. Some, like former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who proclaimed that Democrats “have passion for stealing” elections, raised the specter of voter fraud. Others have argued that Democrats will collude with federal law enforcement agencies and/or bring back COVID-19 precautions to “rig” the election. Some figures also dismissed the 91 criminal charges the former president faces as “election interference” and argued that Trump’s legal issues are simply Democrats’ latest scheme to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.

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  • Right-wing figures claim that Democrats will steal the election

    • In November, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham said that Democrats are “laying the groundwork for election interference” in 2024. [Media Matters, 11/21/23]
    • Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich said it is “almost impossible under current law to ensure an accurate election” in 2024 and commented that Democrats “have passion for stealing” close elections. “In states dominated by Democrats like New York, Illinois, California, you just have to assume that the machine will steal as much as it can,” Gingrich said. [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 6/4/23]
    • The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles has repeatedly argued that Democrats and the “ruling elite” are preparing to “do COVID again” in order to “rig” the 2024 election. [Media Matters, 9/13/23]
    • Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told Sebastian Gorka that “we have to be ready for them [Democrats] to pull the exact same nonsense” as 2020. He continued, “They’re going to do everything they can to rig, steal, change the rules of the game.” [Salem Media Group, America First with Sebastian Gorka, 1/4/24]
    • Fox host Jesse Watters said that “there will be voter fraud” in every state’s elections except for Florida. In Watters’ telling, only Florida has “voter ID, no harvesting, they count the votes ahead of time, and they give you the results that night.” [Media Matters, 11/7/23]
    • Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller wrote, “The Democrat Party is openly sabotaging the 2024 election while throwing people in jail for questioning their conduct of the 2020 election.” [Twitter/X, 12/29/23]
    • Arizona State Senator and Nick Fuentes fan Wendy Rogers told a live crowd at Turning Point USA’s America Fest that they will need to “man up at every spot along the way during the election to make sure it’s not stolen again.” Rogers told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon that The Democrats “will do everything they can to cheat and steal our election,” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 12/18/23; Media Matters, 1/24/22]
    • Newsmax’s Greg Kelly told right-wing pundit Eric Metaxas that he is “very concerned” that Democrats will “I don’t want to say ‘steal’ — but they’ll mess with the election all over again.” Metaxas pressed Kelly on refusing to use the term “steal” and insisted that “corrupt elites” had snuffed out the “voice of we the people” in the 2020 election. “We’re in a war,” he added. “At some point we have to do something about that.” [The Eric Metaxas Radio Show, 2/6/23]
    • Fox News’ Laura Ingraham predicted Democrats will “game the system or yeah, maybe even cheat” in the 2024 election. [Media Matters, 1/16/24]
    • At TPUSA’s 2023 America Fest, Steve Bannon said that Democrats will “try to steal the 2024 election.” [Media Matters, 12/18/23]

  • Right-wing figures claim the White House, the “deep state,” and federal law enforcement agencies are colluding to steal the 2024 presidential election

    • Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that Joe and Hunter Biden, the Mexican president, and drug cartels are conspiring to sway the 2024 election. “Joe Biden made the cartels more money than they've ever made in history. And the Mexican president, who's controlled by the cartels, interferes in our election on behalf of Biden,” Watters argued. [Media Matters, 6/1/23]
    • Watters also cited an anonymous “former CIA analyst” to claim that the “intelligence agencies who’ve been turbocharged by diversity, equity, and inclusion” will “subvert the Republican nominee” in 2024. [Media Matters, 1/2/24]
    • Trump ally Laura Loomer promoted a bizarre conspiracy theory that Nikki Haley and the deep state might be using “weather manipulation” to “rig” the Iowa Caucuses. Trump later won the contest by a considerable margin. [Media Matters, 1/12/24]
    • Laura Ingraham suggested that “if the endless indictments don’t do the job,” the CIA will step in “to prevent Donald Trump or anyone who thinks like him from becoming president.” [Media Matters, 7/21/23]
    • After insisting that the FBI interfered in the 2016 and 2020 elections, Fox Host Sean Hannity said, “God only knows what they're planning for 2024.” [Media Matters, 5/24/23]
    • The Federalist’s Sean Davis said that “Democrats are preparing to use the military to steal the 2024 election and prevent their opponents from lawfully taking power.” [Twitter/X, 1/14/24]

  • Right-wing figures claim that criminal indictments of Trump constitute “election interference”

    • BlazeTV’s Steve Deace defended himself against criticism from “MAGA people" who call him a “RINO" for “pointing out that they’re [Democrats are] trying to preemptively steal the next election so that you don’t even get to vote for him [Trump].” “You have to understand, you’re quoting polls. They’re putting things and pieces into place that will make polls extremely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what the latest Trump polls are if he’s not even on a ballot.” [BlazeTV, The Steve Deace Show, 8/4/23]
    • Trump ally Mike Davis claimed that the various criminal indictments against Trump are explicit “election interference.” “They want to convict President Trump before the election because they see the polling that President Trump is beating Biden like a drum on November 5, 2024, and the one thing the polling shows that changes that is a criminal conviction of Trump.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 12/13/23]
    • Three weeks later, on The Kimberly Guilfoyle Show, Davis argued that special counsel Jack Smith is committing “election interference.” “Why are they rushed to try President Trump before November 5, 2024, other than election interference?” Davis asked. Davis also characterized Smith as a “Democrat Scud missile sent in to take out Republican presidential contenders” by Joe Biden and the Department of Justice who wants “Trump in a courtroom instead of on the campaign trail.” [Rumble, The Kimberly Guilfoyle Show, 1/5/24]
    • During an appearance on Newsmax, Former Trump official Sebastian Gorka said that the Trump indictments are “election interference” and an effort to “steal” the 2024 election. He argued that unlike 2020 “they [Democrats] don’t have the cover of Wuhan-manufactured biological weapons to mail out tens of millions of mail-in ballots.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 8/1/23]
    • Charlie Kirk argued that the White House had plotted criminal indictments with Fulton County prosecutor Nathan Wade and other state-level prosecutors to prevent Trump from winning the 2024 election. “The White House counsel’s office is now emerging as the war room of all these indictments,” Kirk said. “This, if we play offense, could unravel the entire lawfare operation against Donald Trump and could throw a wrench in their plans to steal the 2024 election.” [Salem Media Group, The Charlie Kirk Show, 1/9/24]
    • In an episode titled “Biden Regime Using Justice System to Preemptively Steal 2024 Election,” Alex Jones claimed that an indictment alleging that Trump mishandled and illegally retained classified documents was “about stealing our right to vote for who we want” and called the effort to prosecute Trump “a coup.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 6/11/23]