Lindell, as well as Trump and a number of other allies of the former president, continues to promote the claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen” in favor of President Joe Biden. No evidence has emerged substantiating the allegation, but it’s widely believed by the majority of Republican voters, according to numerous polls.
During the rally, Lindell said that he sees the situation improving for those who inaccurately believe the last presidential election results were fraudulent.
“The reason I say that is because everybody now is out there with no fear. And we all know what happened and it’s all going to get corrected,” the pro-Trump businessman said. “And it’s all been on God’s timing, not our timing.”
The MyPillow CEO went on to promise the rally goers that there’s “not going to be any election done with any machines or computers done in 2022.” Lindell has claimed that voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic were “hacked” in the 2020 election, alleging that China carried out a cyberattack.
Those claims have consistently been discredited and debunked by cybersecurity and election experts. Even many local Republican officials have spoke out against the conspiracy theory, with some pointing out that the voting machines they oversee are not even connected to the internet. Audits of the machines throughout the country have shown that the claim is false.
Lindell faces a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion because of his claims about the company. A Trump-appointed judge—Justice Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia—rejected a motion from the MyPillow founder’s attorneys to dismiss the case last year, allowing it to proceed.
During his remarks, Lindell also attacked Fox News, as he has done repeatedly over the past several months. Notably, the MyPillow founder continues to run ads on the network despite his criticism.
“The biggest problem we face is not the media, the fake news media. We’re all on to them,” he said. “It’s the conservative media. The ones that don’t talk. One of them rhymes with Fox. OK. Disgusting! They’re disgusting!”
Many speakers at the rally promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. At one point, Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward asked the crowd: “Who won the election?” Thousands of attendees quickly responded: “Trump!”
Similar to Lindell, former Trump administration official Steve Bannon claimed in a Sunday Gettr post that the “decertification process starts now” after the Arizona rally. The right-wing strategist said ahead of the event that it would be the beginning of a pro-Trump effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
“They’re all people that are going to get to the decertification of the 2020 Biden electors,” Bannon claimed. He said that the effort to decertify the results—which is not legally possible—would be “really kicking up next week in Arizona in the [state] Assembly.”
Arizona’s Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, already rejected the idea of decertifying his state’s election results in September. “When it comes to the audit, like the three audits that preceded it, it’s now over. The outcome stands and the 2020 election in Arizona is over,” Ducey wrote on Twitter.
“There will be no decertification of the 2020 election—the audit does not call for one, and even if it had, there is no lawful way to decertify. As we have every step of the way, Arizona will follow the law,” he asserted.
While Trump and his allies continue to promote misinformation about the 2020 election, no evidence has been brought forward substantiating their allegations. To the contrary, more than 60 legal challenges to the results brought by the former president and his supporters have failed in state and federal courts. Even multiple judges appointed by Trump have ruled against the challenges.
Audits and recounts across the country—including in places where the election was overseen by pro-Trump Republicans—have consistently reaffirmed Biden’s win. Former Attorney General William Barr, who was widely viewed as one of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet officials, said in December 2020 that there was “no evidence” of widespread fraud that would change the election’s outcome. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security described the 2020 election as the “most secure in American history.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s press office for comment.
