Category Archives: Donald Trump

ATLANTA An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump has found fewer than 475 a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election.

Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and their 79 Electoral College votes by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The disputed ballots represent just 0.15 percent of his victory margin in those states.

The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.

The review also showed no collusion intended to rig the voting. Virtually every case was based on an individual acting alone to cast additional ballots.

The findings build on a mountain of other evidence that the election wasnt rigged, including verification of the results by Republican governors.

The AP review, a process that took months and encompassed more than 300 local election offices, is one the most comprehensive examinations of suspected voter fraud in last years presidential election. It relies on information collected at the local level, where officials must reconcile their ballots and account for discrepancies, and includes a handful of separate cases cited by secretaries of state and state attorneys general.

Contacted for comment, Trump repeated a litany of unfounded claims of fraud he had made previously, but offered no new evidence that specifically contradicted the APs reporting. He said a soon-to-come report from a source he would not disclose would support his case, and insisted increased mail voting alone had opened the door to cheating that involved hundreds of thousands of votes.

I just dont think you should make a fool out of yourself by saying 400 votes, he said.

These are some of the culprits in the massive election fraud Trump falsely says deprived him of a second term:

A Wisconsin man who mistakenly thought he could vote while on parole.

A woman in Arizona suspected of sending in a ballot for her dead mother.

A Pennsylvania man who went twice to the polls, voting once on his own behalf and once for his son.

The cases were isolated. There was no widespread, coordinated deceit.

The cases also underscore that suspected fraud is both generally detected and exceptionally rare.

Voter fraud is virtually non-existent, said George Christenson, election clerk for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, where five people statewide have been charged with fraud out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast for president. I would have to venture a guess thats aboutthe same odds as getting hit by lightning.

Even in the state with the highest number of potential fraud cases Arizona, with 198 they comprised less than 2 percent of the margin by which Biden won.

Trump has continued to insist that the election was fraudulent by citing a wide range of complaints, many of them involving the expansion of mail voting because of the pandemic. As the Republican weighs another run for president in 2024, he has waded into some GOP primary contests, bestowing endorsements on those who mimic his Stop the steal rhetoric and seeking to exact revenge on some who have opposed his efforts to overturn the results.

Trumps false claims of a stolen election fueled the deadly Jan. 6 attempted insurrection at the Capitol, have led to death threats against election officials and have become deeply ingrained within the GOP, with two-thirds of Republicans believing Bidens election is illegitimate. Republican lawmakers in several states have used the false claims as justification to conduct costly and time-consuming partisan election reviews, done at Trumps urging, and add new restrictions for voting.

The number of cases identified so far by local elections officials and forwarded to prosecutors, local law enforcement or secretaries of state for further review undercuts Trumps claim. Election officials also say that in most cases, the additional ballots were never counted because workers did their jobs and pulled them for inspection before they were added to the tally.

There is a very specific reason why we dont see many instances of fraud, and that is because the system is designed to catch it, to flag it and then hold those people accountable, said Amber McReynolds, a former director of elections in Denver and the founding CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, which promotes mail voting.

The APs review of cases in the six battleground states found no evidence to support Trumps various claims, which have included unsupported allegations that more votes were tallied than there are registered voters and that thousands of mail-in ballots were cast by people who are not on voter rolls. Dozens of state and federal courts have rejected the claims.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the APs reporting offered further proof that the election was fairly conducted and decided, contrary to Trumps claims.

Each time this dangerous but weak and fear-ridden conspiracy theory has been put forward, it has only cemented the truth more by being completely debunked including at the hands of elections authorities from both parties across the nation, nonpartisan experts, and over 80 federal judges, he said.

Experts say to pull off stealing a presidential election would require large numbers of people willing to risk prosecution, prison time and fines working in concert with election officials from both parties who are willing to look the other way. And everyone somehow would keep quiet about the whole affair.

It would be the most extensive conspiracy in the history of planet Earth, said David Becker, a senior trial attorney in the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush who now directs the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research.

Separate from the fraud allegations are claims by Trump and his allies that voting systems or ballot tallies were somehow manipulated to steal the election. Judges across the country, of both parties, dismissed those claims. That includes a federal judge in Michigan who ordered sanctions against attorneys allied with Trump for intending to create confusion, commotion and chaos in filing a lawsuit about the vote-counting process without checking for evidence to support the claims.

Even Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, said a month after the election that there was no indication of widespread fraud that could change the result.

For its review, AP reporters in five states contacted roughly 340 election offices for details about every instance of potential voter fraud that was identified as part of their post-election review and certification process.

After an election is over, officials research voter records, request and review additional information if needed from the state or other counties, and eventually decide whether to refer potential fraud cases for further investigation a process that can take months.

For Wisconsin, the AP relied on a report about fraud investigations compiled by the state and filed public records requests to get the details of each case, in addition to prosecutions that were not initially reported to the state elections commission. Wisconsin is the only one of the six states with a centralized accounting of all potential voter fraud cases.

A state-by-state accounting:

Authorities have been investigating 198 possible fraud cases out of nearly 3.4 million votes cast, representing 1.9 percent of Bidens margin of victory in the state. Virtually all the cases were in Pima County, home to Tucson, and involved allegations of double voting. The county has a practice of referring every effort to cast a second ballot to prosecutors, something other offices dont do. In the Pima cases, only one ballot for each voter was counted. So far, nine people have been charged in the state with voting fraud crimes following the 2020 election. Six of those were filed by the state attorney generals office, which has an election integrity unit that is reviewing an undisclosed number of additional cases.

Election officials in 124 of the states 159 counties reported no suspicious activity after conducting their post-election checks. Officials in 24 counties identified 64 potential voter fraud cases, representing 0.54 percent of Bidens margin of victory in Georgia. Of those, 31 were determined to be the result of an administrative error or some other mistake. Eleven counties, most of them rural, either declined to say or did not respond. The state attorney generals office is reviewing about 20 cases referred so far by the state election board related to all elections in 2020, including the primary, but it was not known if any of those overlapped with cases already identified by local election officials.

Officials have identified 56 potential instances of voter fraud in five counties, representing 0.04 percent of Bidens margin of victory in the state. Most of the cases involved two people suspected of submitting about 50 fraudulent requests for absentee ballots in Macomb, Wayne and Oakland counties. All the suspicious applications were flagged by election officials and no ballots were cast improperly.

Local officials identified between 93 and 98 potential fraud cases out of 1.4 million ballots cast, representing less than one-third of 1 percent of Bidens margin of victory. More than half the total 58 were in Washoe County, which includes Reno, and the vast majority involved allegations of possible double voting. The statewide total does not include thousands of fraud allegations submitted to the state by local Republicans. Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has said many of those were based largely upon an incomplete assessment of voter registration records and lack of information concerning the processes by which these records are compiled and maintained. Its not known how many remain under investigation.

Election officials in 11 of the states 67 counties identified 26 possible cases of voter fraud, representing 0.03 percent of Bidens margin of victory. The elections office in Philadelphia refused to discuss potential cases with the AP, but the prosecutors office in Philadelphia said it has not received any fraud-related referrals.

Election officials have referred 31 cases of potential fraud to prosecutors in 12 of the states 72 counties, representing about 0.15 percent of Bidens margin of victory. After reviewing them, prosecutors declined to bring charges in 26 of those cases. Meagan Wolfe, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the number of cases in 2020 was fairly run of the mill.

APs review found the potential cases of fraud ran the gamut: Some were attributed to administrative error or voter confusion while others were being examined as intentional attempts to commit fraud. In those cases, many involved people who sought to vote twice by casting both an absentee and an in-person ballots or those who cast a ballot for a dead relative such as the woman in Maricopa County, Arizona. Authorities there say she signed her mothers name on a ballot envelope. The womans mother had died a month before the election.

The cases are bipartisan. Some of those charged with fraud are registered Republicans or told investigators they were supporters of Trump.

Donald Holz is among the five people in Wisconsin who face voter fraud charges. He said all he wanted to do was vote for Trump. But because he was still on parole after being convicted of felony drunken driving, the 63-year-old retiree was not eligible to do so. Wisconsin is not among the states that have loosened felon voting laws in recent years.

Holz said he had no intention to break the law and only did so after he asked poll workers if it was OK.

The only thing that helps me out is that I know what I did and I did it with good intentions, Holz said after an initial court appearance in Fond du Lac. The guy upstairs knows what I did. I didnt have any intention to commit election fraud.

In southeast Pennsylvania, 72-year-old Ralph Thurman, a registered Republican, was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to one count of repeat voting. Authorities said Thurman, after voting at his polling place, returned about an hour later wearing sunglasses and cast a ballot in his sons name.

After being recognized and confronted, Thurman fled the building, officials said. Thurmans attorney told the AP the incident was the result of miscommunication at the polling place.

Las Vegas businessman Donald Kirk Hartle was among those in Nevada who raised the cry against election fraud. Early on, Hartle insisted someone had unlawfully cast a ballot in the name of his dead wife, and state Republicans seized on his story to support their claims of widespread fraud in the state. It turned out that someone had cast the ballot illegally Hartle, himself. He agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of voting more than once in the same election.

Hartles attorney said the businessman, who is an executive at a company that hosted a Trump rally before the election, had accepted responsibility for his actions.

Additional fraud cases could still surface in the weeks and months ahead. One avenue for those is the Electronic Registration Information Center, a data-sharing effort among 31 states aimed at improving state voter rolls. The effort also provides states with reports after each general election with information about voters who might have cast ballots in more than one state.

In the past, those lists have generated small numbers of fraud cases. In 2018, for example, Wisconsin used the report to identify 43 additional instances of potential fraud out of 2.6 million ballots cast.

Official post-election audits and other research have shown voter fraud to be exceptionally rare. A nonpartisan audit of Wisconsins 2020 presidential election found no evidence of widespread fraud and a Republican lawmaker concluded it showed that elections in the state were safe and secure, while also recommending dozens of changes to how elections are run. In Michigan, Republican state senators issued a report earlier this year saying they had found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in the 2020 election.

Not only do election officials look for fraud, they have procedures to detect and prevent it.

For mail voting, which expanded greatly last year because of the pandemic, election officials log every mail ballot so voters cannot request more than one. Those ballots also are logged when they are returned, checked against registration and, in many cases, voter signatures on file to ensure the voter assigned to the ballot is the one who cast it.

If everything doesnt match, the ballot isnt counted.

Often, we dont get to fraud, said Jennifer Morrell, a former local election official in Utah and Colorado who advises election officials on security and other issues. Say we have evidence that something might not be correct, we ask the voter to provide additional documentation. If the person doesnt respond, the ballot isnt accepted. The fraud never happened.

If a person who requested a mail ballot shows up at a polling place, this will become apparent when they check in. Typically, poll workers either cancel the ballot that was previously issued, ensuring its never counted, or ask the voter to complete a provisional ballot that will only be counted if the mail ballot is not.

In Union County, Georgia, someone voted in person and then election officials found their ballot in a drop box. Since the person had already voted, the ballot in the drop box was not counted and the case was referred to the state for investigation, Deputy Registrar Diana Nichols said.

We can tell pretty quick whenever we pull up that record wait a minute, this person has already voted, Nichols said. Im not saying its foolproof. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. But as far as the system is set up, if you follow the rules and the guidelines set up by the state, I think its a very good system.

The final step is the canvassing process in which election officials must reconcile all their counts, ensuring the number of ballots cast equals the number of voters who voted. Any discrepancies are researched, and election officials provide detailed explanations before the election can be certified.

Often, an administrative error can raise questions that suggest the potential for fraud.

In Forsyth County, Georgia, election officials were asked by Arizona investigators for records confirming that a voter had also cast a ballot in Georgia last November. It turns out that voter didnt cast a ballot but was listed as having done so because their registration number was mistakenly associated with another voters record in the countys system, according to a letter sent by county election officials.

In other cases, it could be as simple as a voter signing on the wrong line next to another persons name in a paper pollbook at their polling place. Once researched, it quickly becomes clear no fraud occurred.

Republican lawmakers have argued there are security gaps in the process, using concerns of fraud to justify restrictions on voting laws. This has happened even in places where Republican lawmakers have pushed back against Trumps false claims and said the 2020 election was valid.

The review by Republican lawmakers in Michigan that found no systemic fraud cited various claims they had investigated. For example, senators were provided with a list of over 200 voters in Wayne County who were believed to be dead. Of these, the report noted, only two instances involved actual dead voters. The first was due to a clerical error in which a son had been confused with his dead father and the second involved a 92-year-old woman who had died four days before the election.

And yet, Republicans in the state are collecting signatures for a citizen initiative that would allow the GOP-controlled legislature to approve voting restrictions and bypass a veto by the Democratic governor. Republicans say mail voting needs to be more secure as more people embrace it.

These bills will restore confidence in our elections, said GOP Rep. Ann Bollin, chairwoman of the Michigan House Elections and Ethics Committee and a former township clerk. Voters want to know their vote will count and that they, and only they, are casting their own ballot.

Overall, 80 percent of counties in the six states reviewed by the AP reported no suspicious activity after completing their post-election reviews. This was true of both small and large counties, something experts said was to be expected given how rare voter fraud has been.

Limited instances of fraud do occur, as the AP review illustrates, but safeguards ensure they are few and that they are caught, said Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which supports the state and local officials who administer elections.

Every credible examination has shown there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Hovland said. Time and again when we have heard these claims and heard these allegations, and when you do a real investigation, you see that it is the exception and not the rule.

Story by Christina A. Cassidy. Contributing to this report were Associated Press data journalistCamille Fassett in Oakland, California; reporter Colleen Long in Washington; AP state government reporters Scott Bauer in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Bob Christie in Phoenix; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; and Michelle L. Price in New York City; and other AP reporters in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

More articles from the BDN

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Far too little vote fraud to tip election to Donald Trump, AP finds - Bangor Daily News

During a press event with the former Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly in Florida on Saturday, Dec. 11, former President Donald Trump spoke about how he was "disappointed" in Mike Pence's decision to certify the 2020 election results,CNN reported.

"I was disappointed in one thing, but it was a big thing," Trump said during the event, adding, "Mike should have sent those crooked votes back to the legislatures and you would have had a different result in the election, in my opinion. I think Mike has been very badly hurt by what took place in respect to January 6. I think he's been mortally wounded, frankly."

When asked about who he might pick to be his vice president in a potential 2024 run, Trump mentioned Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. "I think Ron [DeSantis] would be good," Trump revealed toO'Reilly.

Meanwhile, Pence's recent visits to New Hampshire and other key primary spots have fueled rumors that he is considering running for the presidency in 2024. "I can honestly tell you in 2023, my family and I will do what we have always done. We'll reflect, we'll pray and determine where we might best serve, and we'll go where we're called," he told a CNN reporter in New Hamshire, per The Hill.

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Here's Why Donald Trump Is 'Disappointed' In Mike Pence - The List

There were so many empty seats at Donald Trumps Florida event on Saturday that organizers had to shut down the upper level of the arena in Sunrise, Florida, the Sun Sentinel reported.

Trump fans sitting in the nosebleed section of the FLA Live Arena were told that they were being upgraded to the lower levels, according to the newspaper.

Many tickets remained unsold before the event.

Trump appeared with former Fox News personality Bill OReilly, who was bounced from the network after accusations of sexual harassment.

One supposed audience member, in a tweet that later appeared to have been deleted, complained that the duo was an hour late and there were a lot of empty seats.

Particularly embarrassing was Trumps boast in a statement posted on his aides Twitter account before the event: See you in Sunrise, FL, in a little while. ... Big crowds! He signed it President Trump.

Trump predictably had nothing pleasant to say about President Joe Biden in his sitdown on stage with OReilly. But he called Barack Obama sharp and smart.

He also admitted that the world leaders he got along best with were tyrants. For whatever reason, I got along great with them, he added.

The fizzled event was similar to Trumps rally that flopped in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the presidential campaign last year when a mass of empty seats was the star of the show.

People on TikTok boasted that they had made fake reservations for the Tulsa rally as Trump organizers boasted that more than a million people had signed up to attend.

The Florida event was the first of four rallies in Trump and OReillys History Tour. The next event is Sunday in Orlando, where ticket sales have also reportedly been slow. The pair wrap up in Houston and Dallas next weekend.

Continue reading here:

Donald Trump, Bill O'Reilly Event Reportedly Fizzles In ...

Donald Trump attempted to spin his inflammatory speech ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection into something much more mellow and measured on Friday night.

The former president, during an interview with Fox News Laura Ingraham, claimed the incendiary address that whipped his supporters up into storming the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 election was extremely calming.

Honestly, I have nothing to hide, Trump told Ingraham during a conversation about a federal appeals courts refusal to let him block the release of records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 violence.

I wasnt involved in that, Trump declared. And if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming, actually.

Instead, Trump claimed, the insurrection took place on Election Day, and the attack on the Capitol was just a protest.

Watch the claim here:

A transcript of Trumps speech on Jan. 6 shows him ranting repeatedly about the fake news media, pushing the baseless conspiracy theory that the election was rigged, and vowing to never give up and never concede.

Our country has had enough, he said at one point. Youll never take back our country with weakness, he added, encouraging supporters to show strength and be strong.

And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, he added. After the violence, Trump was impeached for the second time for inciting insurrection.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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Donald Trump Defies Belief With New Spin On We Fight Like ...

Republican members of Congress appear to have conspired with former President Donald Trump's administration in efforts to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory, according to text messages revealed by the House Select Committee investigating January 6.

The select committee released texts from as-yet unnamed lawmakers to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Monday before the panel voted unanimously to recommend contempt charges against him.

Those messages appear to show the lawmakers supporting a plan to object to the certification of Electoral College votes on January 6 where then Vice President Mike Pence would have played a key role.

One member of Congress sent a text to Meadows before January 6 urging Pence to reject some Electoral College votes.

"On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all," the lawmaker wrote.

In a text read out on Monday by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, a member of Congress apologized to Meadows for the failure of objections to the certification of the election.

"Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I'm sorry nothing worked," the lawmaker wrote after the events of January 6.

Following the storming of the Capitol on January 6, Congress proceeded to certify the results of the election and then Vice President Pence carried out his largely ceremonial role, refusing to throw out Electoral College votes.

However, 147 Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to sustain objections to Electoral College votes from Arizona, Pennsylvania, or both.

Former President Donald Trump and his allies have continued to make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and other irregularities in the 2020 election.

Trump has also repeatedly criticized Pence for his role in the certification and argued that the former vice president should have done more to support objections to the Electoral College votes in question.

The House Select Committee also revealed text messages Meadows received on January 6 from Donald Trump Jr. and some Fox News personalities urging action to end the Capitol riot.

Trump Jr. wrote to Meadows: "He's got to condemn this shit ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough" and Meadows agreed, replying: "I'm pushing it hard. I agree."

Fox News' Laura Ingraham texted: "Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home ... this is hurting all of us ... he is destroying his legacy."

"Can he make a statement? ... Ask people to leave the Capitol," Fox News' Sean Hannity texted Meadows.

Republican Representative Liz Cheney, who is vice chair of the House Select Committee, read out a number of other text messages Meadows had received during the hearing on Monday.

"Mr. Meadows received numerous text messages, which he has produced without any privilege claim imploring that Mr. Trump take the specific action we all knew his duty required. These text messages leave no doubt. The White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol. Members of Congress, the press, and others wrote to Mark Meadows as the attack was underway," Cheney said.

Excerpt from:

Donald Trump Admin and GOP Members Conspired to Overthrow the Election, Texts Reveal - Newsweek

In this daily series, Newsweek explores the steps that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot.

On December 15, the day after the Electoral College affirmed Joe Biden as the next president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky quietly told White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that he planned to acknowledge that former Vice President Biden had won the presidency. That was before he had an epic conversation with Donald Trump.

After the election, McConnell took up none of Donald Trump's questions about the elections, maintaining the position that the president had the right to challenge the results. But he had been silent on offering his former colleague and close friend Biden congratulations for the victory. Many interpreted McConnell's silence as tacit support for the president, and his lack of action annoyed many who thought that the senator should do something rather than humor the president.

McConnell certainly pursued his own agenda in publicly breaking with Trump. But it wasn't just self-interest. McConnell hated Trump with the kind of personal animus that is often disregarded in the conventional narrative, or in journalism, to explain people's motivations.

From the night of November 3, Election Day, according to Michael Wolff's "Landslide," McConnell was annoyed that Trump had done better than expected. When friends who asked which he preferreda Trump victory and a Senate majority or a Trump loss and the loss of the SenateMcConnell chose the latter. He hated Trump even more than he loved being Majority Leader.

"The animosity between the two men, Trump and McConnell, was total," Wolff wrote. "The Republican leader's view of Trump was as virulent as the most virulent liberal's view: Trump was ignorant, corrupt, incompetent, unstable."

"Every day for the past four years," Wolff wrote, "McConnell had struggled not to bendat least not privately to bend, as so many others hadto the headbanger in the White House.

"But it was impossible to overstate the hatred he had for Trump."

McConnell had not figured that Trump would be capable of ignoring the reality of his loss, that even after every court rejected his claims and the Electoral College voted, that Trump would still upend the entire country on behalf of his ego.

McConnell went to the Senate floor.

"Many millions of us had hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result. But our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20.

"Trump claims the election was stolen. The assertions range from specific local allegations to constitutional arguments to sweeping conspiracy theories ... nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scalethe massive scalethat would have tipped the entire election.... If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.

"The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."

Trump called McConnell immediately to excoriate the Senate leader, screaming obscenities at the second-most-powerful Republican in the nation. "Disloyal! Weak!," he tore into McConnell, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's "Peril."

"It was a road-rage confrontation," Wolff wrote, Trump questioning McConnell's honesty, competence, patriotism and manhood. McConnell ended the call. "You lost the election. The Electoral College has spoken," he said.

The ugly exchange was okay, McConnell later told aides, because it would be the last time he ever had to speak to the president (and indeed the two would not speak again for the remainder of the Trump presidency).

McConnell later told the Republican caucus in the Senate that the election fight was over, urging unanimity in not supporting the president's efforts. There was only a perfunctory January 6 ceremony left.

Interest in the Senate for any kind of action to challenge the Electoral College seemed nonexistent. But in the House of Representatives, that wasn't the case. Nearly two-thirds of House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, supported a "friend of the court" briefing backing the Texas lawsuit before the Supreme Court.

The national council of the Three Percenters issued a statement about the Electoral College vote: "We stand ready and are standing by to answer the call from our President should the need arise that We The People are needed to take back our country from the pure evil that is conspiring to steal our country away from the American people. We are ready to enter into battle with General Flynn leading the charge. We will not act unless we are told to. And we will not act on our own as TTPO [The Three Percenters Original], but rather as a united body of American patriots."

As the Electoral College vote was announced, Corrine Lee Montoni, 31, of Lakeland, Florida (who would later be arrested for her role on January 6), also posted on Instagram: "Trump is our leader. This is not over yet. January 6th is the day to keep an eye on and if that doesn't work, we will be in DC on the 20th letting the world know we REJECT progressive liberalism."

Montoni also posted on Parler: "Insurrection Act coming in hot ... void the fraudulent 2020 election, arrest these traitors and restore order and faith in our justice department. GitMo is readyyyyyy."

"If Pence betrays us, we riot," she posted on Parler on December 28.

The rest is here:

Mitch McConnell Hated Donald Trump More than He Loved Being Majority Leader - Newsweek

Donald Trump is continuing to fight lawmakers efforts to get their hands on his financial recordsand to use the same presidential harassment argument to justify stonewalling the House Oversight Committee. No prior Congress has demanded this kind of information, but every future Congress will if this court upholds the subpoena, Cameron T. Norris, a lawyer for the former president, told a D.C. appeals court on Monday. Theres no principled way to limit the fallout to President Trump.

That argument hasnt exactly worked for him before; though a federal judge in August put limits on what records House investigators could seek, the implication that Trump is completely above being subpoenaed has not passed legal muster. But it could be enough to help him execute his standard legal strategy: dragging out litigation for as long as possible. We urge this court in the strongest possible terms to rule as quickly as possible, Douglas Letter, an attorney representing the House of Representatives, told the three-judge panel Monday.

The case has been going on since 2019, when Democratsfresh off a midterm victory that gave them control of the House of Representativesdemanded Mazars USA, Trumps accounting firm, turn over his elusive financial records. Trump sued Mazars to block the firm from releasing them and has been battling in court to keep lawmakers from obtaining them. Last year, the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which allowed prosecutors to access Trumps tax returns but kept Congress from doing so for now, asking lower courts to consider whether the subpoenas are overly broad and if lawmakers could obtain the information elsewhere.

In August, federal judge Amit Mehta ruled that congressional investigators could obtain Trumps tax returns from his years in office and certain other records from the past decade, but no others. Neither side much liked that decision: Trump, whose financial records might provide evidence of wrongdoing, wants none of his documents released, and House lawmakers want more material than Mehtas ruling would allow. Both sides appealed, and the case went to a three-judge panel.

Those judgesKetanji Brown Jackson, Judith W. Rogers, and Sri Srinivasandidnt seem inclined toward Norris argument that upholding the subpoena would make presidents subject to harassment from lawmakers. But it remains to be seen if theyll accept Letters counterargumentthat the limits the Supreme Court asked lower courts to consider no longer apply to Trump because he is out of office. The Constitution does draw a clear line between a president and an ex-president, Letter said Monday. An ex-president is somebody who rejoins the great unwashed. It also remains to be seen what will happen if the case returns to the conservative Supreme Court, as it is likely to do eventually. But the biggest question hanging over the proceedings may be timing: Trump already made it through his one-term presidency without having to show his records to lawmakers. With a lengthy appeals process and more sure to come, its likely hell be able to drag the case out even longer.

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Trumps Strategy to Keep His Tax Returns Secret: Running Out the Clock - Vanity Fair

"Last night the Jan. 6 commission revealed that during the Capitol riots, the White House chief of staff got texts pleading for Trump to calm things down from Fox News anchors and Donald Trump Jr.," Jimmy Fallon said on Tuesday's Tonight Show. "Yeah, Trump ignored the advice of those closest to him and also Don Jr.," and now that advice is public, "today Fox News hosts lit their tree on fire again just to change the subject."

Fallon read some of the actual texts Mark Meadows received on Jan. 6, and some he (probably) did not.

The Late Show just showedfake texts, also picking on Eric Trump.

"Meadows received urgent text messages from multiple Fox News hosts and the president's son Don Jr.," Stephen Colbert said on The Late Show, and one text in particular "reveals two things about Don Jr. one, he knew his dad was responsible and failing to lead, and two, he does not have his father's cellphone number." But that makes sense, he added. "You cannot give Don that number, it's too risky he might give it to Eric."

Also, "keep in mind, these Fox News hosts pushed the big election lie for months leading up to Jan. 6, and then when their obedient viewers stormed the Capitol, they acted all surprised," Colbert noted.

"It's crazy that CNN fired Chris Cuomo because he was caught giving secret advice to a politician, his brother, but now it turns out that basically everyone at Fox News was giving secret advice to President Trump and his people," Trevor Noah said on The Daily Show.Apparently, "if one person at your network has no integrity, that's a problem, but if nobody has integrity, that's a company policy."

Also, "seeing Don Jr. desperately trying to get a message to his own father, I mean that tells you a lot about their relationship," Noah said.

Yes, "Donald Trump Jr. texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during January's Capitol attack urging him to make President Trump condemn the violence," Seth Meyers spelled outon Late Night. "Then he texted again, saying, 'Fine, I'll tell him myself, just give me his number!'"

Well, publicly, "Don Jr.'s spent the last 11 months praising his father's lack of action," Jimmy Kimmel noted on Kimmel Live. And you can see the same private panic, public praise from"the gang at Fox News,"he said, so "if you're looking for some silver lining here, I don't think we give the Fox News gang enough credit for their acting. It's really good."

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Late nights hosts mock Don Jr., Fox News over Jan. 6 texts to Mark Meadows - The Week Magazine

ATLANTA (AP) An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump has found fewer than 475 a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election.

Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and their 79 Electoral College votes by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The disputed ballots represent just 0.15% of his victory margin in those states.

The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.

The review also showed no collusion intended to rig the voting. Virtually every case was based on an individual acting alone to cast additional ballots.

The findings build on a mountain of other evidence that the election wasnt rigged, including verification of the results by Republican governors.

The AP review, a process that took months and encompassed more than 300 local election offices, is one the most comprehensive examinations of suspected voter fraud in last years presidential election. It relies on information collected at the local level, where officials must reconcile their ballots and account for discrepancies, and includes a handful of separate cases cited by secretaries of state and state attorneys general.

Contacted for comment, Trump repeated a litany of unfounded claims of fraud he had made previously, but offered no new evidence that specifically contradicted the APs reporting. He said a soon-to-come report from a source he would not disclose would support his case, and insisted increased mail voting alone had opened the door to cheating that involved hundreds of thousands of votes.

I just dont think you should make a fool out of yourself by saying 400 votes, he said.

These are some of the culprits in the massive election fraud Trump falsely says deprived him of a second term:

A Wisconsin man who mistakenly thought he could vote while on parole.

A woman in Arizona suspected of sending in a ballot for her dead mother.

A Pennsylvania man who went twice to the polls, voting once on his own behalf and once for his son.

The cases were isolated. There was no widespread, coordinated deceit.

The cases also underscore that suspected fraud is both generally detected and exceptionally rare.

Voter fraud is virtually non-existent, said George Christenson, election clerk for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, where five people statewide have been charged with fraud out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast for president. I would have to venture a guess thats about the same odds as getting hit by lightning.

Even in the state with the highest number of potential fraud cases Arizona, with 198 they comprised less than 2% of the margin by which Biden won.

Trump has continued to insist that the election was fraudulent by citing a wide range of complaints, many of them involving the expansion of mail voting because of the pandemic. As the Republican weighs another run for president in 2024, he has waded into some GOP primary contests, bestowing endorsements on those who mimic his Stop the steal rhetoric and seeking to exact revenge on some who have opposed his efforts to overturn the results.

Trumps false claims of a stolen election fueled the deadly Jan. 6 attempted insurrection at the Capitol, have led to death threats against election officials and have become deeply ingrained within the GOP, with two-thirds of Republicans believing Bidens election is illegitimate. Republican lawmakers in several states have used the false claims as justification to conduct costly and time-consuming partisan election reviews, done at Trumps urging, and add new restrictions for voting.

The number of cases identified so far by local elections officials and forwarded to prosecutors, local law enforcement or secretaries of state for further review undercuts Trumps claim. Election officials also say that in most cases, the additional ballots were never counted because workers did their jobs and pulled them for inspection before they were added to the tally.

There is a very specific reason why we dont see many instances of fraud, and that is because the system is designed to catch it, to flag it and then hold those people accountable, said Amber McReynolds, a former director of elections in Denver and the founding CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, which promotes mail voting.

The APs review of cases in the six battleground states found no evidence to support Trumps various claims, which have included unsupported allegations that more votes were tallied than there are registered voters and that thousands of mail-in ballots were cast by people who are not on voter rolls. Dozens of state and federal courts have rejected the claims.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the APs reporting offered further proof that the election was fairly conducted and decided, contrary to Trumps claims.

Each time this dangerous but weak and fear-ridden conspiracy theory has been put forward, it has only cemented the truth more by being completely debunked including at the hands of elections authorities from both parties across the nation, nonpartisan experts, and over 80 federal judges, he said.

Experts say to pull off stealing a presidential election would require large numbers of people willing to risk prosecution, prison time and fines working in concert with election officials from both parties who are willing to look the other way. And everyone somehow would keep quiet about the whole affair.

It would be the most extensive conspiracy in the history of planet Earth, said David Becker, a senior trial attorney in the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush who now directs the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research.

Separate from the fraud allegations are claims by Trump and his allies that voting systems or ballot tallies were somehow manipulated to steal the election. Judges across the country, of both parties, dismissed those claims. That includes a federal judge in Michigan who ordered sanctions against attorneys allied with Trump for intending to create confusion, commotion and chaos in filing a lawsuit about the vote-counting process without checking for evidence to support the claims.

Even Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, said a month after the election that there was no indication of widespread fraud that could change the result.

For its review, AP reporters in five states contacted roughly 340 election offices for details about every instance of potential voter fraud that was identified as part of their post-election review and certification process.

After an election is over, officials research voter records, request and review additional information if needed from the state or other counties, and eventually decide whether to refer potential fraud cases for further investigation a process that can take months.

For Wisconsin, the AP relied on a report about fraud investigations compiled by the state and filed public records requests to get the details of each case, in addition to prosecutions that were not initially reported to the state elections commission. Wisconsin is the only one of the six states with a centralized accounting of all potential voter fraud cases.

A state-by-state accounting:

ARIZONA: Authorities have been investigating 198 possible fraud cases out of nearly 3.4 million votes cast, representing 1.9% of Bidens margin of victory in the state. Virtually all the cases were in Pima County, home to Tucson, and involved allegations of double voting. The county has a practice of referring every effort to cast a second ballot to prosecutors, something other offices dont do. In the Pima cases, only one ballot for each voter was counted. So far, nine people have been charged in the state with voting fraud crimes following the 2020 election. Six of those were filed by the state attorney generals office, which has an election integrity unit that is reviewing an undisclosed number of additional cases.

GEORGIA: Election officials in 124 of the states 159 counties reported no suspicious activity after conducting their post-election checks. Officials in 24 counties identified 64 potential voter fraud cases, representing 0.54% of Bidens margin of victory in Georgia. Of those, 31 were determined to be the result of an administrative error or some other mistake. Eleven counties, most of them rural, either declined to say or did not respond. The state attorney generals office is reviewing about 20 cases referred so far by the state election board related to all elections in 2020, including the primary, but it was not known if any of those overlapped with cases already identified by local election officials.

MICHIGAN: Officials have identified 56 potential instances of voter fraud in five counties, representing 0.04% of Bidens margin of victory in the state. Most of the cases involved two people suspected of submitting about 50 fraudulent requests for absentee ballots in Macomb, Wayne and Oakland counties. All the suspicious applications were flagged by election officials and no ballots were cast improperly.

NEVADA: Local officials identified between 93 and 98 potential fraud cases out of 1.4 million ballots cast, representing less than one-third of 1% of Bidens margin of victory. More than half the total 58 were in Washoe County, which includes Reno, and the vast majority involved allegations of possible double voting. The statewide total does not include thousands of fraud allegations submitted to the state by local Republicans. Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has said many of those were based largely upon an incomplete assessment of voter registration records and lack of information concerning the processes by which these records are compiled and maintained. Its not known how many remain under investigation.

PENNSYLVANIA: Election officials in 11 of the states 67 counties identified 26 possible cases of voter fraud, representing 0.03% of Bidens margin of victory. The elections office in Philadelphia refused to discuss potential cases with the AP, but the prosecutors office in Philadelphia said it has not received any fraud-related referrals.

WISCONSIN: Election officials have referred 31 cases of potential fraud to prosecutors in 12 of the states 72 counties, representing about 0.15% of Bidens margin of victory. After reviewing them, prosecutors declined to bring charges in 26 of those cases. Meagan Wolfe, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the number of cases in 2020 was fairly run of the mill.

APs review found the potential cases of fraud ran the gamut: Some were attributed to administrative error or voter confusion while others were being examined as intentional attempts to commit fraud. In those cases, many involved people who sought to vote twice by casting both an absentee and an in-person ballots or those who cast a ballot for a dead relative such as the woman in Maricopa County, Arizona. Authorities there say she signed her mothers name on a ballot envelope. The womans mother had died a month before the election.

The cases are bipartisan. Some of those charged with fraud are registered Republicans or told investigators they were supporters of Trump.

Donald Holz is among the five people in Wisconsin who face voter fraud charges. He said all he wanted to do was vote for Trump. But because he was still on parole after being convicted of felony drunken driving, the 63-year-old retiree was not eligible to do so. Wisconsin is not among the states that have loosened felon voting laws in recent years.

Holz said he had no intention to break the law and only did so after he asked poll workers if it was OK.

The only thing that helps me out is that I know what I did and I did it with good intentions, Holz said after an initial court appearance in Fond du Lac. The guy upstairs knows what I did. I didnt have any intention to commit election fraud.

In southeast Pennsylvania, 72-year-old Ralph Thurman, a registered Republican, was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to one count of repeat voting. Authorities said Thurman, after voting at his polling place, returned about an hour later wearing sunglasses and cast a ballot in his sons name.

After being recognized and confronted, Thurman fled the building, officials said. Thurmans attorney told the AP the incident was the result of miscommunication at the polling place.

Las Vegas businessman Donald Kirk Hartle was among those in Nevada who raised the cry against election fraud. Early on, Hartle insisted someone had unlawfully cast a ballot in the name of his dead wife, and state Republicans seized on his story to support their claims of widespread fraud in the state. It turned out that someone had cast the ballot illegally Hartle, himself. He agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of voting more than once in the same election.

Hartles attorney said the businessman, who is an executive at a company that hosted a Trump rally before the election, had accepted responsibility for his actions.

Additional fraud cases could still surface in the weeks and months ahead. One avenue for those is the Electronic Registration Information Center, a data-sharing effort among 31 states aimed at improving state voter rolls. The effort also provides states with reports after each general election with information about voters who might have cast ballots in more than one state.

In the past, those lists have generated small numbers of fraud cases. In 2018, for example, Wisconsin used the report to identify 43 additional instances of potential fraud out of 2.6 million ballots cast.

Official post-election audits and other research have shown voter fraud to be exceptionally rare. A nonpartisan audit of Wisconsins 2020 presidential election found no evidence of widespread fraud and a Republican lawmaker concluded it showed that elections in the state were safe and secure, while also recommending dozens of changes to how elections are run. In Michigan, Republican state senators issued a report earlier this year saying they had found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in the 2020 election.

Not only do election officials look for fraud, they have procedures to detect and prevent it.

For mail voting, which expanded greatly last year because of the pandemic, election officials log every mail ballot so voters cannot request more than one. Those ballots also are logged when they are returned, checked against registration and, in many cases, voter signatures on file to ensure the voter assigned to the ballot is the one who cast it.

If everything doesnt match, the ballot isnt counted.

Often, we dont get to fraud, said Jennifer Morrell, a former local election official in Utah and Colorado who advises election officials on security and other issues. Say we have evidence that something might not be correct, we ask the voter to provide additional documentation. If the person doesnt respond, the ballot isnt accepted. The fraud never happened.

If a person who requested a mail ballot shows up at a polling place, this will become apparent when they check in. Typically, poll workers either cancel the ballot that was previously issued, ensuring its never counted, or ask the voter to complete a provisional ballot that will only be counted if the mail ballot is not.

In Union County, Georgia, someone voted in person and then election officials found their ballot in a drop box. Since the person had already voted, the ballot in the drop box was not counted and the case was referred to the state for investigation, Deputy Registrar Diana Nichols said.

We can tell pretty quick whenever we pull up that record -- wait a minute, this person has already voted, Nichols said. Im not saying its foolproof. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. But as far as the system is set up, if you follow the rules and the guidelines set up by the state, I think its a very good system.

The final step is the canvassing process in which election officials must reconcile all their counts, ensuring the number of ballots cast equals the number of voters who voted. Any discrepancies are researched, and election officials provide detailed explanations before the election can be certified.

Often, an administrative error can raise questions that suggest the potential for fraud.

In Forsyth County, Georgia, election officials were asked by Arizona investigators for records confirming that a voter had also cast a ballot in Georgia last November. It turns out that voter didnt cast a ballot but was listed as having done so because their registration number was mistakenly associated with another voters record in the countys system, according to a letter sent by county election officials.

In other cases, it could be as simple as a voter signing on the wrong line next to another persons name in a paper pollbook at their polling place. Once researched, it quickly becomes clear no fraud occurred.

Republican lawmakers have argued there are security gaps in the process, using concerns of fraud to justify restrictions on voting laws. This has happened even in places where Republican lawmakers have pushed back against Trumps false claims and said the 2020 election was valid.

The review by Republican lawmakers in Michigan that found no systemic fraud cited various claims they had investigated. For example, senators were provided with a list of over 200 voters in Wayne County who were believed to be dead. Of these, the report noted, only two instances involved actual dead voters. The first was due to a clerical error in which a son had been confused with his dead father and the second involved a 92-year-old woman who had died four days before the election.

And yet, Republicans in the state are collecting signatures for a citizen initiative that would allow the GOP-controlled legislature to approve voting restrictions and bypass a veto by the Democratic governor. Republicans say mail voting needs to be more secure as more people embrace it.

These bills will restore confidence in our elections, said GOP Rep. Ann Bollin, chairwoman of the Michigan House Elections and Ethics Committee and a former township clerk. Voters want to know their vote will count and that they, and only they, are casting their own ballot.

Overall, 80% of counties in the six states reviewed by the AP reported no suspicious activity after completing their post-election reviews. This was true of both small and large counties, something experts said was to be expected given how rare voter fraud has been.

Limited instances of fraud do occur, as the AP review illustrates, but safeguards ensure they are few and that they are caught, said Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which supports the state and local officials who administer elections.

Every credible examination has shown there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Hovland said. Time and again when we have heard these claims and heard these allegations, and when you do a real investigation, you see that it is the exception and not the rule.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press data journalistCamille Fassett in Oakland, California; reporter Colleen Long in Washington; AP state government reporters Scott Bauer in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Bob Christie in Phoenix; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; and Michelle L. Price in New York City; and other AP reporters in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

See more here:

Far too little vote fraud to tip election to Trump, AP finds - Associated Press

A senior evangelical leader has warned former US president Donald Trump to end his rift with ex-Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that it could jeopardize support among American Christians.

Mike Evans, a former Trump adviser who is very close to Netanyahu, sent a letter to Trump, which he shared with the Washington Post, saying he was horrified by Trumps recently reported comments.

The letter comes after the release of an interview with Trump by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid in which Trump lashed out at Netanyahu over the Israeli leaders congratulations to US President Joe Biden after he won the presidency last year.

Trump said Netanyahus congratulatory message to Biden came too quickly after the election results were announced, results he continues to contest to this day.

He was very early. Like earlier than most. I havent spoken to him since. Fuck him, Trump said.

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Further comments released saw Trump claiming Netanyahu, not the Palestinians, were the main obstacle to peace, and that Netanyahu angered and blindsided Trump with a plan to annex much of the West Bank.

Please, I beg of you, dont put us in the position to choose between you and Bible land, the letter said according to the Post. There is no possibility you can win again if Bible-believing evangelicals see you as the Fk Netanyahu president who ... blames the State of Israel, and not the Palestinians, for not making peace.

Mike Evans at the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, on May 16, 2017 (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Evans implored Trump to understand that Benjamin Netanyahu, in his view, has much greater support among evangelicals in America than you.

Evans, who runs the Jerusalem Prayer Team, which boasts some 77 million followers, has come to Netanyahus defense before.

Earlier this year, when a coalition was coalescing under Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid to oust Netanyahu, Evans warned that such a move could see Israel lose the support of American Christians.

He called them a coalition of Arab anti-Zionists and post-Zionists who would wave a white flag and surrender to radical Islam.

Bibi Netanyahu is the only man in the world that unites evangelicals, he said.

Evans also released an open letter to Bennett, calling him a disgusting disappointment and accused him of shitting on the face of US evangelicals.

He later apologized, saying that Bennett has actually been a strong Zionist most of the time I know him, and he deserves more respect.

Netanyahu has been instrumental in recent years in shifting Israels diplomatic focus in the US from relying on the support of the US Jewish community which is largely liberal and critical of Israel to seeking evangelical support.

This was highlighted earlier this year when former Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer suggested that Israel should prioritize the passionate and unequivocal support of evangelical Christians over that of American Jews, who he said are disproportionately among our critics.

Illustrative: Evangelical Christians from various countries wave flags as they march to show their support for Israel in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

Other evangelical leaders took a more nuanced view of Trumps comments than did Evans, but were clearly unhappy with the rift.

Evangelical support for Israel is rooted in our Biblical tradition which transcends both politics and personalities, Sandra Parker, the action fund chairwoman for Christians United for Israel, the largest US pro-Israel lobby, told the Post in an email Tuesday.

Johnnie Moore, a former Liberty University official who helped organize Trumps evangelical advisory board in 2016, said US evangelicals would not abandon Trump.

The relationship between American Evangelicals and Bibi preceded the relationship with President Trump by many, many years, he said. But Bibi was an Israeli prime minister, and Trump was an American president. Theres a difference between the two for Americans, he said referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Others noted that even if the reports were true, it did not diminish all that Trump had done for Israel, citing his recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Even if the alleged comments are true, it doesnt diminish in the least that President Trumps policies have been the most pro-Israel in history, said Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Dallas, who led a prayer at the 2018 opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

Trump spoke to Ravid in April and July for the Israeli reporters new Hebrew-language book, Trumps Peace, about the normalization deals between Israel and Arab states, which were brokered with the help of the Trump administration. Some of his comments, which were taped, have been broadcast on Israeli TV, including the Fuck Bibi remarks.

Despite Trumps anger, Netanyahu was actually quite late in congratulating Biden in November of last year, conspicuously doing so long hours after many other world leaders.

Trumps denial of Bidens election victory led him to boycott his successors inauguration. It also led to the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, for which the House impeached the former president for a second time.

Ravid writes for Israels Walla news site and the Axios news site in the US.

Speaking to Ravid, the former president said no one had helped Netanyahu more than he did, and he therefore considered it a betrayal when Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his election victory, even as Trump falsely claimed that the election had been stolen.

Nobody did more for Bibi. And I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi, Trump said. He was the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with.

But I also like loyalty. The first person to congratulate Biden was Bibi. And not only did he congratulate him, he did it on tape. And it was on tape.

I was personally disappointed in him, he said. Bibi could have stayed quiet. He made a terrible mistake.

In a statement after an initial broadcast of Trumps comments last week, Netanyahu hailed Trump, and explained why it was important that he congratulate Biden on his victory.

Former prime minister Netanyahu really appreciates the great contribution that president Trump made to the State of Israel and its security, the statement from Netanyahus office said. He also really appreciates the importance of the strong alliance between Israel and it was therefore important for him to congratulate the incoming president.

The rest is here:

Dont make us choose you or Israel: Evangelical warns Trump over Netanyahu rift - The Times of Israel