Political Parties

At 2:20 a.m. on election night of 2020 Donald Trump gave a “victory” speech, “Frankly, we did win this election”. He insisted that fraud was to blame for his victory not being clearer to the media (including Fox) that were calling the key states, such as Arizona, for Biden. This continued his claims throughout the campaign that the Democrats were rigging the vote. He had even tweeted in July that because of fraud the election should be postponed—a violation of the Constitution. Without evidence the claim of fraud was repeated by rightwing media. Fox News cast doubt on the election results over 770 times in the two weeks after the election. Social media flooded the internet, with posts using Trump’s #StoptheSteal getting 3.5 million shares and likes. A week after Biden’s inauguration, which the departing president for the first time in 152 years didn’t attend, two-thirds of Republicans believed he was not legitimately elected.