Donald Trump posted a demand on his social media platform Truth Social this Monday for a new presidential election.
He wanted the new election as a back-up plan in the event he wasn’t somehow declared the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election that already happened because of supposed issues with it. There’s absolutely no indication anywhere that any credible U.S. authority is even slightly interested in running a new election or even slightly legally permitted to do such a thing. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the law and reality could no doubt say as much. And yet, here’s Trump.
“So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, “Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election,”” Trump ranted Monday on Truth Social. “This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!” He’s dramatically overstating what happened in the context of news that came out about a laptop tied in reports to Hunter Biden, an adult son of the current president, which contained purportedly damaging info. Trump is potentially attempting to reference recent conversations about how Facebook handled a story about the Hunter Biden laptop.
Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook (which is now under a parent company called Meta), said on a podcast episode that his platform limited the reach of the laptop story after an FBI warning. This warning didn’t specifically mention a story about Hunter Biden, and it didn’t force the company to take action — meaning Trump’s idea that the FBI “buried” the Hunter Biden laptop story is delusional nonsense, per currently available info. “The FBI routinely notifies U.S. private sector entities, including social media providers, of potential threat information, so that they can decide how to better defend against threats,” the agency said after Zuckerberg’s comments began circulating. Meta itself responded. “The FBI shared general warnings about foreign interference — nothing specific about Hunter Biden,” according to the company. (Concerns circulated about the source of the Hunter Biden story.) There was no FBI conspiracy, and actions the FBI actually took didn’t even directly involve Hunter Biden or his laptop.
