Donald Trump, during his campaign to become the Republican presidential nominee, has repeated many of the same claims he has been making since he was president, from the length of his border wall to attendances at his rallies.
The GOP front-runner has continued to share the false claim that he lost the 2020 presidential election, whether in interviews or on the campaign trail.
In an attempt to support this claim, Trump told supporters at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, this weekend that the vast majority of Americans believed the election had been stolen as well.
The Claim
At a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Saturday, former President Donald Trump said: "What happened at that last election is a disgrace, and we're not going to let it happen again, we're not going to let it happen again.
"Did you ever notice they go after the people that want to find out where the cheating was and, by the way, 82 percent of the country understands that it was a rigged election, OK? You can't have a country with that.
"A poll came out, 82 percent, but they go after the people, they don't go after the people that rigged the election, they go after the people that looking, they're looking for the people that rigged the election.
"And that's the people they go after. They got away with something; they're never going to get away with it again."
The Facts
No evidence supports this claim.
The closest evidence that fits is a 2021 survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) which found that 82 percent of Republicans who most trust Fox News said they either completely or mostly agreed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
And 31 percent of all Americans surveyed, irrespective of political beliefs, either completely or mostly agreed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.
A CBS News/YouGov poll released in December 2020 produced similar results; 82 percent of Trump voters said they did not consider then President-elect Joe Biden the legitimate winner of the election.
The PPRI poll was conducted in September 2021, about a year before the House Jan 6. committee report was released, and around two years before special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' indictments charged Trump and others with attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In a more recent survey published in January, conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland in December 2023—conducted from December 14 to 18, among 1,024 adults—some 69 percent of respondents who cited Fox News as their source for news agreed with the statement that there was solid evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Of all adults surveyed, 33 percent thought the same.
Crucially, Trump's statement does not appear to be based on publicly available surveys or polling. Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Donald Trump for comment.
Trump has made multiple provably false claims throughout his Republican presidential primary campaign. In an interview aired on February 29, the former president told Fox News' Sean Hannity that some abortions are carried out after a baby is born.
In February, he also falsely alleged that Joe Biden boasted about serving in the military and had been a pilot.
The Ruling
False.
There is no evidence that supports this claim. A survey from 2021 showed that 82 percent of Republicans who trusted Fox News as their news source believed the election was stolen.
The same survey found that 31 percent of all survey participants agreed with this statement. Research conducted since has roughly matched these findings.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
