Trump tells election lie just as Facebook says it may let him post again

Donald Trump on Monday once again told the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, making the baseless accusation in a statement that reads like a tweet but does not appear on the platform because his account has been permanently suspended.

“The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” Trump said in the statement, capitalizations his own.

Trump’s false assertion that the election was rife with fraud came shortly after Facebook announced it will make a decision by Wednesday about whether the company will allow Trump to return to the platform.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was one of 10 Republicans in the House to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol, slammed Trump’s Monday statement.

“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system,” Cheney tweeted, an apparent dig at Trump’s statement.

Trump was kicked off of both Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, after the Capitol insurrection.

Trump’s “decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement on Jan. 7 — one day after the deadly attack from the pro-Trump mob.

Zuckerberg added, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

Since his suspension from the platform, Trump has continued to spread the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and in recent days has stepped up his lies as Republican state senators in Arizona conduct a shoddy audit of the state’s presidential election results.

A video posted just days ago by a guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, shows Trump once again claiming the election was rigged and touting the audit in Arizona.

“Let’s see what they find. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes,” Trump said in the video. “We’re going to watch that very quickly and, after that, we’ll Pennsylvania, we’ll watch Georgia, and you’re going to watch Michigan, and Wisconsin, and New Hampshire.”

While Facebook is mulling whether to let Trump back, Twitter, which also booted Trump from their platform after the insurrection, has said its suspension lasts foreverer.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.