Jan. 6, election fraud, immigration: Fact checking Donald Trump’s claims at Macon rally
Former President Donald Trump’s hours-long rally at Atrium Health Amphitheater in Macon Sunday was one of his last events before Election Day and drew several prominent guest speakers including including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
Trump and guest speakers echoed many familiar talking points during the event, many of which include untrue or disputed claims.
Here’s how accurate some of Trump and his advocates’ claims are.
Marjorie Taylor Greene said Jan. 6 ‘was not an insurrection’
Ahead of Trump’s arrival — which was delayed for about an hour and a half while he finished speaking at another rally in North Carolina — Greene, a vocal supporter of the former president, took the stage.
During her remarks, she called the U.S. government “tyrannical” for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its handling of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Greene insisted that Jan. 6 “was not an insurrection,” and that the government arresting people who stormed the Capitol that day is “the worst thing I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
“The government shouldn’t lock people up because they protested an election,” Greene said.
On Jan. 6, 2021, a crowd of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol during a joint session of Congress convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Historians and experts describe the event as an “attack.” During the attack, a woman, Ashli Babbitt, was killed by Capitol Police as she stormed the building, and a police officer died. Officer Brian Sicknick was found to have died from natural causes, according to a medical examiner, which USCP accepted. But the agency said it “does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty,” and called the Jan. 6 riot “an attack on our democracy.”
Members of Congress sheltered while rioters went through senators and representatives’ offices and chanted to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump and allies question 2020, 2024 election results
Throughout the rally, Trump and his allies pushed claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and that Democrats are preparing to rig this election in favor of Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon told supporters that Democrats are trying to interfere with election results in Georgia, and said that he and other Republican allies would stop it.
“We will not let them make 2024 2020, we will not do it,” McKoon said.
While Trump has made these claims repeatedly throughout the election cycle, there is still no evidence of widespread voter fraud or systemic interference with the 2020 election. Dozens of legal challenges were filed regarding the outcome of the 2020 election, and none of them succeeded.
Similarly, there is no evidence so far of issues with voting in this year’s election, or plans of Democrats interfering.
Trump’s claims on undocumented immigrants
Immigration featured heavily in Trump’s remarks Sunday evening.
At multiple points during the rally, he called undocumented immigrants “murderers” and “terrorists,” and referenced Laken Riley, a nursing student who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant on the University of Georgia’s campus in February.
He also brought on stage the mother of Mimi Rodriguez, a woman who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant in North Georgia last week, and played a video featuring the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old who was allegedly killed by undocumented immigrants in Texas.
“I will not let these animals into our country any longer,” Trump said. “I will not let them spill one more precious drop of American blood.”
Experts and researchers have found that undocumented immigrants do not commit crimes at higher rates than native born Americans, and that there is no link between increased numbers of undocumented immigrants and crime rates.
Trump also claimed that immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants, take jobs from native born Americans, but a study by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University found that immigrants create more jobs than they take.
Trump repeated the claim that Harris and President Joe Biden gave Federal Emergency Management Agency money to undocumented immigrants in the wake of Hurricane Helene. This claim is false, according to multiple media reports, and FEMA has clarified that no hurricane relief money was diverted.