Trump Grabs Fringe Jan. 6 Theories to Defend His Fraud Claims

It’s no secret that ever since the 2020 election result, former president Donald Trump has been vocal about his alleged fraud claims. Despite lacking evidence of electoral fraud and the president’s legal challenges being rejected by over 50 different courts across the nation, the former president remains convinced that the election was rigged. In the weeks leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration, the President followed a new path towards overturning the election results – fringe theories on the Jan 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. Trump’s lawyers along with his political allies in Congress have used this incident to back the President’s claims of electoral fraud. Many have suggested that the incident at the Capitol was a Democratic plot to overthrow Trump and weaken the Republican Party. In an affidavit by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Trump is said to have discussed the idea of disrupting the certification of the electoral votes on Jan 6. Meanwhile, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert has soberly proclaimed that the riot at the Capitol was actually a “false flag attack” orchestrated by the Democrats. Ultimately, these conspiratorial theories have little to no realistic basis. Though Trump himself has yet to officially back any of these fringe theories, advisers surrounding the former President are using them to further the idea of electoral fraud and to sow doubt on the election outcome. Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed the Capitol riots exposed the historic magnitude of fraud during the election yet failed to provide credible evidence to back these claims. Giuliani also suggested that supporters of left-wing political organization Antifa were among those present in the Capitol building, yet the FBI has found no such evidence. Trump’s use of the Jan 6 Capitol incident to support his case of election fraud is a clear example of his refusal to accept the results of the election. While these decentralizing claims may have been used to rally the support of Trump’s base, they have no basis in fact. The President’s desperate attempt to cling to office has only further discredited his character and forced the American population to question his true motives.