'In 2020 we won (Wisconsin).'
As the Wisconsin Republican Party gathered for its annual convention to plot strategy for the future, former President Donald Trump continued his effort to re-fight the last election. First, he claimed state GOP leaders were 'working hard to cover up election corruption in Wisconsin' and to block an investigation into the 2020 results. We rated that Pants on Fire. Those leaders, to be sure, are spearheading such an effort. More predictably, in a video statement shown June 26, 2021 to convention delegates, Trump repeated this familiar claim: 'We had actually great results in Wisconsin, as you know in 2016 we won and as you also know in 2020 we won,' the former president said. If Trump wants re-litigate the claim that he won in 2020, we can revisit it, too. Hint: His claim is still ridiculously false. Past is prologue Trump has made his 'I won Wisconsin' claim numerous times, perhaps most prominently at a Dec. 5, 2020 rally in Valdosta, Ga., where he tried to boost the campaigns of Republican U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. Two Democrats, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, ultimately won those races, putting the Senate at a 50-50 tie, and effectively in Democratic control. At the Georgia rally, Trump spent time trashing Wisconsin, one of the state's that narrowly swung to Democrat Joe Biden, and declared: 'Actually, I won Wisconsin.' We rated the claim Pants on Fire. Some excerpts from that item: 'On Nov. 4, 2020, the morning after Election Day, the Associated Press declared Biden the winner in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported unofficial results showed Biden with a lead of about 20,000 votes -- and that the Trump campaign was already vowing to request a recount. 'When it did request the recount, Trump's team focused only on heavily Democratic Dane and Milwaukee counties. But, by the time the recount was over, Trump actually fell further behind.' Also: 'Having failed, the Trump campaign turned to the court system. 'But on Dec. 3, 2020, in a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court rejected the campaign's request to overturn the certification of votes. Instead, the court said Trump's campaign had to start at the circuit court level. It was a major setback, with even dissenting judges indicating they may reject the call to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots. 'A day later, the court said it would not accept a lawsuit by Trump allies who wanted to let Republican lawmakers decide how to cast the state's electoral votes, rather than the electors chosen by voters in the election. 'Meanwhile, the campaign also went to the federal court, where U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig questioned whether the case should even be before him, calling part of the lawsuit's requested remedy 'really bizarre' and told an attorney for the Trump campaign it was seeking 'pretty remarkable declaratory relief.' Ludwig has scheduled a hearing for Dec. 10.' In the end, that effort failed as well -- as did numerous other court challenges to the results. Beyond that, there has been no evidence presented that suggests widespread fraud -- enough to overturn the election -- took place.
Our ruling Trump's claim that he won Wisconsin in 2020 was ridiculous when he first made it. If anything, to keep repeating it is more ridiculous now. Pants on Fire.
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