Fact-checking Donald Trump’s claims about the 2020 election during an interview with Joe Rogan

In a three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan — a conversation that lasted even longer than one of Donald Trump’s rally speeches — the former president repeated falsehoods about the outcome of the 2020 election.

The conversation came less than two weeks before Election Day and ranged from claims about life on Mars illegal immigration to his plan to impose tariffs on everyday goods.

Here we will fact-check what Trump said about the 2020 election.

“I won that second election” in 2020.

Pants on fire!

Joe Biden achieved his victory by winning more votes in the Electoral College. Biden received 306 electoral votes compared to Trump’s. Biden’s path to victory included the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Although the popular vote does not determine who wins the presidential election, Biden received about 7 million more votes nationally than Trump.

The results of the 2020 election were verified in multiple ways: States certified the results. Trump and his allies lost more than sixty lawsuits. Congress accepted the results, after Trump supporters violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A group of conservatives, including former federal judges, investigated every claim of fraud and miscounting by Trump and his allies. concluded that they “failed to provide evidence of fraud or inaccurate results significant enough to invalidate the results.”

Republicans in Trump’s own administration, including his then-attorney general, Bill Barrtold Trump that his statements about the ‘stolen’ election were ‘bull–‘. Republican election officialsalso in Georgia, said the election was secure and that Biden had won.

PolitiFact has documented some examples of voter fraud in 2020such as people who vote on behalf of deceased relatives. But these examples were not enough to change the outcome of the race.

States used “COVID to cheat” in the 2020 election.

Pants on fire!

Many states have made voting easier during the pandemic by sending a ballot or an application to receive a ballot to registered voters. Some states that previously required voters to have an excuse to vote by mail have relaxed that rule.

Trump is free to disagree with these changes, but he is wrong — and that’s ridiculous — to label them a hoax. These changes were implemented openly, through executive orders, administrative actions, or laws. And when one state expanded access to voting by mail, it became available to Republican voters as well.

States “had to get legislative approval to do the things they did,” such as changing the rules for voting by mail.

Rejecting a Trump argument in lawsuits over the 2020 election results, several courts ruled that states do not have to pass every election policy through the legislature; instead, government officials can act on their own if necessary. .

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, for example: indicted four battleground states that voted for Bidenarguing that their election procedures violated the laws of their states. In one one page statementThe U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the lawsuit, concluding that Texas had no case to challenge the way other states administer elections.

Experts say it is common to change election rules without passing legislation.

“It is often the case that there are gaps in election statutes that state and local election officials routinely fill under their delegated authority,” said Rebecca Green, an election law professor at the College of William and Mary. “So to say that all decisions about how elections are conducted should come from the legislature is inconsistent with expressly delegated powers to election officials.”

Changes made without formal legislative signature were implemented not only in Democratic or battleground states, but also by Republican officials in staunchly pro-Trump states.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum issued an order order in March 2020, the requirement that each county operate at least one in-person polling place was suspended for counties that have approved voting by mail.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has one executive order allowing concerns about COVID-19 to be a valid excuse to vote absentee in the November 2020 election.

In the state of Paxton, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott added additional days for early voting for the general election, citing the challenges posed by the pandemic.

After Hurricane Michael struck North Florida in October 2018, then-Gov. Rick Scott cited his emergency laws order to lift some rules regarding mail-in ballots and in-person voting.

“If you look at Wisconsin, they basically admitted that the election was rigged, robbed and stolen.”

Pants on fire!

Trump asked for recounts in Wisconsin, but those recounts maintained Biden’s victory; Biden received a net of 74 votes when the recount was completed. The state confirmed Biden’s victory.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit to ban absentee ballots, concluding that the issues were not “cleanly presented.”

An investigation led by former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman – who has sided with Trump and promoted his false claims – provided no evidence the election was wrongly called.

Also the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty no evidence found of widespread fraud. And state auditors found voting machines worked properly.

PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.