Three weeks to build the wall? Fact checking claims from Trump’s NC rally

During his rally in Selma on Saturday, former President Donald Trump made a number of false or misleading claims.

The News & Observer is fact-checking some of Trump’s claims here.

No, the 2020 election was not ‘rigged and stolen’

Claim: “The presidential election was rigged and stolen.”

Within minutes of taking to the podium, Trump said that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen, a longstanding claim that originated in the months before the election, when Trump began warning his supporters that he believed there would be widespread fraud, and continued in the months after he lost the election to Joe Biden. The notion that the 2020 election was stolen has become a fundamental argument for Trump and his most prominent supporters, but there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In December 2020, while attorneys for Trump’s campaign were still challenging election results in states around the country, former Attorney General William Barr said officials had not found evidence of “fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” according to Reuters.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which leads the U.S. government’s efforts to protect its cyber-security infrastructure and guard against threats, also said in a statement in the days after the 2020 election that there was no evidence that any voting system “deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” and that the 2020 election was the “most secure in American history.”

Did Pelosi turn down Guard protection before Jan. 6?

Claim: “Nancy Pelosi was in charge of the Capitol, you know that right? And the mayor of D.C., they were in charge of all security in the Capitol. Remember also, that they were offered three days before, on Jan. 3, 10,000 soldiers, or National Guard, to protect the Capitol. They turned it down. If they would’ve accepted that — they’re in charge of it, and we offered it — if they would’ve accepted that there would’ve been no Jan. 6 as we know it.”

Trump repeated a claim that has been made before by Republicans in talking about the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

There is no evidence for it, according to multiple news outlets that have fact-checked the allegation.

Republicans have claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down an offer to have thousands of National Guardsmen deployed in advance of the rally and march to the Capitol, but haven’t provided any evidence that she was directly involved in security preparations being undertaken by the U.S. Capitol Police or the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund discussed security of the Capitol building with Paul Irving, the House sergeant-at-arms, and Michael Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms in the days before the riot, according to the Washington Post. Sund suggested having a National Guard deployment to Irving and Stenger on Jan. 4, two days before the riot, and both Irving and Stenger said they didn’t support the idea, the Washington Post reported.

During a Senate hearing last year, Irving clarified that the proposed National Guard troops would have been unarmed and deployed to control traffic in the area. Under questioning by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Irving said he did not discuss the idea of a National Guard deployment with any congressional leadership prior to the day of the riot, when he told leaders he might request assistance, the Washington Post reported.

3 weeks needed to complete border wall?

Claim: It would take three weeks to complete a wall along the Mexico-US border if Trump were reelected president.

This statement by Trump on Saturday is likely a gross underestimate, based on what his administration achieved during four years of his presidency. Building a border wall was one of Trump’s most common refrains in the months leading up to his 2016 win. He claimed in 2021 to have succeeded in erecting 400 miles of wall along the nearly 2,000-mile border. But only 80 miles made up new construction. The rest consisted of renovations and replacements for preexisting wall.

No evidence gender studies replacing ‘reading and math’

Claim: Schools are replacing fundamental subjects with gender studies.

Trump said schools are trying to replace “reading and math with pronouns and gender study.”

The claim references recent interest in expanded gender inclusivity for transgender students and those who identify as neither male nor female. Trump and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson have spoken out against rethinking traditional understandings of gender. Robinson has specifically criticized LGBTQ-themed books in some school libraries, some of which have sexual scenes or adult language.

While some school districts have taken steps to protect transgender students and others with nontraditional gender identities, we couldn’t find evidence that any have suggested supplanting basic education with new courses on gender studies.

Republicans can eliminate all COVID-related mandates?

Claim: If reelected, Trump would remove COVID-19 mandates.

A Republican-majority Congress with Trump as president would undo “every last COVID mandate,” Trump said Saturday. “They’re still around.”

Few government COVID-19 mandates still exist in North Carolina, and the most recent to have expired were authorized by local governments — not federal legislation. Durham was the last of North Carolina’s 115 school districts to maintain a student mask mandate, but it ended on Friday. Capacity restrictions at public venues and businesses expired months ago.

For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.