CNN
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Former President Donald Trump and Home Speaker Mike Johnson raised considerations Friday in regards to the integrity of US elections in a joint look at Mar-a-Lago that featured false claims about voting, immigration and different matters.
Trump’s group billed the occasion as being about “election integrity”– a phrase he typically makes use of to explain the lie that the 2020 election was rigged, in addition to his unfounded claims about future mass voter fraud.
Right here’s a breakdown of a few of the false claims from their remarks.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson raised baseless considerations about “doubtlessly lots of of 1000’s of votes” being forged by undocumented immigrants within the November presidential election.
“If a person solely asserts or just states that they’re a citizen, they don’t should show it, they usually can register that particular person to vote in a federal election,” Johnson mentioned, including that “we solely need US residents to vote in US elections.”
To unravel this situation, which he referred to as a “major problem,” Johnson mentioned Home Republicans would suggest a invoice that requires folks to straight present proof of US citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections.
Info First: The system, as it’s presently arrange, is working, and successfully prevents mass voting by non-citizens in US elections. Regardless of Johnson’s deal with this matter, this can be very uncommon, in response to a long time of voting knowledge and nonpartisan specialists. It’s so unusual that voting specialists don’t see it as an issue plaguing US elections.
In federal and state elections, the place voting by non-citizens is prohibited, it happens on a microscopic stage. (It’s true {that a} handful of municipalities have handed legal guidelines letting non-citizens take part in native elections, like for college board. However this wasn’t the main target of Johnson’s considerations about federal elections.)
When folks register to vote, they have to present a driver’s license or social safety quantity, and their id is checked towards present databases. Voters are required to swear underneath penalty of perjury that they’re a US citizen, and a number of federal legal guidelines make it unlawful for non-citizens to vote, which might result in imprisonment or deportation.
This technique, as proven from a long time of information, may be very efficient at stopping non-citizens from registering and voting in federal elections.
“It occurs nearly by no means,” mentioned David Becker, founding father of the nonpartisan Heart for Election Innovation & Analysis. “Making one thing unlawful doesn’t cease it from occurring, however we all know how typically it occurs, and it’s extraordinarily uncommon. This can be a drawback that may be very small. And it has nearly all the time occurred due to a misunderstanding.”
The correct-leaning Heritage Basis’s database of confirmed fraud instances lists lower than 100 examples of non-citizens voting between 2002 and 2022, amid multiple billion lawfully forged ballots. And the left-leaning Brennan Heart for Justice analyzed greater than 23 million votes from the 2016 election and located an estimated 30 examples.
Additional, from a commonsense perspective, there’s little to realize for an undocumented immigrant who theoretically desires to vote in a presidential election. There’s nearly no likelihood their single poll would tip the outcomes, they usually’d be risking all the pieces to do it.
“The penalties are excessive, and the payoff is low,” mentioned Rick Hasen, an election regulation skilled on the UCLA Faculty of Regulation. “For those who aren’t a citizen and also you vote, and also you’re caught, you possibly can face deportation and legal penalties. And your probabilities of affecting an election end result are small. It’s most unlikely somebody would purposely select to vote as a noncitizen.”
Hasen, a Trump critic, mentioned, “if we had a giant drawback on this nation with non-citizen voting, possibly that may justify greater than an affidavit, swearing to their citizenship standing. However as a result of we don’t have a giant drawback, we don’t must put impediments within the path of greater than 99% of voters who’re certified.
Trump has an extended historical past of spreading false claims about international nationals voting in US elections. Most famously, he claimed “hundreds of thousands” of undocumented immigrants forged ballots in 2016, a brazen lie that he used to clarify why he misplaced the favored vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen At an look at Mar A Lago with Home Speaker Mike Johnson, former President Donald Trump claimed that “hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands” of individuals, together with terrorists and other people from jails and psychological establishments have come illegally to the USA from nations like Venezuela and “the Congo.”
Trump claimed that “hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands” of individuals, together with terrorists and other people from jails and psychological establishments have come illegally to the USA from nations like Venezuela and “the Congo.”
Info First: There isn’t a proof for Trump’s repeated claims that any coutries, a lot much less “the Congo” and Venezuela, have emptied prisons and psychological well being establishments to permit violent criminals to return to the US border as migrants.
Final yr, Trump’s marketing campaign was unable to offer any proof for his narrower declare on the time that South American nations had been emptying psychological well being services to by some means dump sufferers upon the US. Specialists on the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, plus each pro-immigration and anti-immigration organizations within the US have additionally informed CNN they haven’t seen any proof of Congolese prisons being emptied.
From CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Daniel Dale
Trump baselessly claimed – as he typically does – that Biden is secretly orchestrating the New York state legal case towards him, which is about to go to trial on Monday.
“That’s election interference by the Biden administration,” Trump mentioned. “They really took their high man, one among their high guys, put him into the D.A.’s workplace to run it, and it’s a disgrace.”
Trump is referring to the truth that Matthew Colangelo, who had served as a senior Justice Division official underneath Biden, left the division in 2022 for a job within the workplace of the Manhattan District Legal professional who’s prosecuting the case, Alvin Bragg.
Info First: There isn’t a foundation for Trump’s claims that the trials towards him have been directed by Biden in an effort to intrude with the election.
First, there isn’t any proof that Biden, his White Home or his Justice Division has had any position in launching or working Bragg’s case, not to mention that Biden operatives are issuing secret instructions within the case – and Bragg is a domestically elected official who doesn’t report back to the federal authorities.
There’s additionally no proof the White Home or the Biden administration had something to do with Colangelo’s resolution to go away the Justice Division and be a part of the district legal professional’s workplace as senior counsel to Bragg; Colangelo and Bragg had been colleagues earlier than Bragg was elected Manhattan district legal professional in 2021.
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen and Daniel Dale
Trump mentioned “hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of individuals are pouring in (to the US) … We in all probability have 15 million (migrants).”
Info First: Trump’s determine about what number of migrants have crossed the border underneath the Biden administration is inflated.
As of March, US Customs and Border Safety has recorded almost 9.4 million border encounters nationwide since President Joe Biden took workplace in January 2021.
Whereas hundreds of thousands of individuals are not “pouring” into the US at one time, the nation continues to grapple with a migrant surge on the southern border.
From CNN’s Danya Gainor
At an look in Mar A Lago with Home Speaker Mike Johnson, former President Donald Trump touted that “we broke Roe V. Wade” and claimed that each “authorized scholar” wished it overturned.
Info First: Trump’s declare that “each authorized scholar” wished Roe overturned shouldn’t be true. Many wished Roe preserved, as a number of authorized students reiterated in feedback to CNN earlier this week.
Learn extra from these authorized students right here.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn
