Opinion: Republicans confirm Trump’s 2020 election was ‘lost, not stolen’

By Steve Corbin

Professor Emeritus of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa

Numerous Republican-led audits, in-depth investigations and testimonies have proven that no voter fraud or machine rigging occurred in the 2020 presidential election. Even former president Donald Trump admitted — in 2020 and 2024 — he lost the election.

Trusting the 2024 election process is vitally important. Knowing the reality of the 2020 election, truth telling by Trump and GOP-spearheaded fact-finding should erase voters’ concern about the integrity of the upcoming election.

First, recall Cassidy Hutchinson (GOP assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff) testified before the Jan. 6 House Select Committee that Trump told Meadows and other White House staff that he lost the 2020 election (The Hill, Sept. 12, 2023). Hutchinson’s testimony has never been refuted.

Second, on Aug. 4, Trump — in an interview with Lex Fridman (podcast #442) — admitted he lost the 2020 election (The Economic Times, Sept. 6). Trump also said he “lost the 2020 election” on two other occasions: Aug. 23, at an event near the Southern border, and on Aug. 30, at the Moms for Liberty summit (USA Today, Sept. 8).

Third, the 2020 election deniers, Trump and J.D. Vance may purposely be ignoring that eight prominent, life-long Republicans, all attorneys, published a 72-page research-based document (Lost, Not Stolen) concluding that Joe Biden won the election fair and square. All voters should read, at a bare minimum, the introduction (pp. 1-2) and executive summary (pp. 3-4) of Lost, Not Stolen, accessible at https://lostnotstolen.org.

Fourth, Ken Block, a data analytics expert and Trump campaign consultant, was hired by Trump to find voter fraud in the 2020 election. In a deposition taken by the Jan. 6 committee, he stated there were no voter irregularities anywhere in America (USA Today, Jan. 2).

Fifth, when white nationalist, supremacist and antisemetic Nick Fuentes — Trump’s guest at a Nov. 22, 2022 Mar-a-Lago dinner — learned that Trump admitted he lost in 2020, he blasted Trump on his Sept. 6 podcast requesting voters to not back Trump. An infuriated Fuentes stated “So, why did we do Stop the Steal?” (USA Today, Sept. 5 & 8).

Sixth, Trump’s chief pollster Tony Fabrizio presented a 27-page election defeat autopsy report in Dec. of 2020 to Trump and his advisors saying Trump saw “the greatest erosion with white voters, particularly white men” plus his honesty and trustworthiness were a problem (Politico, Feb. 2, 2021).

Lost, Not Stolen

Eight die-hard Republican attorneys conducted a legal review of all 64 court cases filed by Trump and his supporters to contest the 2020 results. The final report, with 280 reference citations and published in July 2021, provided unequivocal evidence that Trump lost. They found there was “no credible evidence that fraud changed the outcome even in a single precinct, let alone in any state” (Cato Institute, July 21, 2022).

The eight GOP attorneys-at-law “also examined, point by point, every fraud accusation made in social media and in the public forum by those who claimed the election was stolen.” They found no improper vote counts, no voting machine rigging, no absentee ballot fraud, no voter identification fraud and no blocking of observers during the vote count (Trib Total Media, July 16, 2022).

Lost, Not Stolen’s authors, who remain Republicans, include three prominent retired federal judges (Thomas Griffith, Michael McConnell and J. Michael Luttig), former solicitor general Theodore Olson, election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg, longtime congressional staff chief David D. Hoppe and former senators John Danforth (1976-1995, Mo.) and Gordon Smith (1997-2009, Ore.).

The eight GOP lawyers went on in their 72-page definitive report to “urge fellow conservatives to cease obsessing over the results of the 2020 election.”

It’s interesting that 81 percent of adults surveyed in an ABC News/Ispos poll will accept the results of our upcoming Nov. 5 election. This means 19 percent of Americans—the ill-informed and gullible—have accepted Trump and GOP officials’ Stop the Steal pretense. Furthermore, 67 percent of Americans feel Trump isn’t prepared to accept the outcome unless he wins (Aug. 30).

Patriotic Americans feel sad for the 2020 election deniers, who have been duped, hoodwinked, led down a dark rabbit hole and given disinformation, misinformation and blatant propaganda. Trump’s 2020 stolen election conspiracy theory—one of 51 attributed to Trump and touted 526 times on his Truth Social media platform—has been proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, to be fallacious (CREW, June 27).

You should feel confident and comfortable voting on Nov. 5. Why? Close and contested elections are a part of American history. All states have voting security upgrade processes in place—robust and resilient—to handle just such situations.

Trusted elections are the foundation of our democracy. On Nov. 5, don’t fret. Vote!

Contact Steve Corbin at Steven.B.Corbin@gmail.com