Fact Check: Democrats Spent 3 Years ‘Trying to Overturn the Last Election’

Hannah Knudsen

CLAIM: Democrats have largely refused to accept the results of the 2016 election and have spent the better part of the last three years “trying to overturn the last election.”

Verdict: TRUE Democrats have consistently questioned the legitimacy of President Trump’s election, beginning with the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, followed by their pursuit of impeachment over a phone call.

When asked what he would “personally” do in the event that Joe Biden (D) wins and  Trump “refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power,” Vice President Mike Pence accurately pointed out that it is the Democrats who have a history of struggling to accept the results of presidential elections.

“When you talk about accepting the outcome of the election, I must tell you, Senator, your party has spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the last election. It’s amazing,” Pence said.

“When Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, the FBI actually spied on President Trump and my campaign. I mean there were documents released this week that the CIA actually made a referral to the FBI documenting that those allegations were coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign,” he continued.

“And of course, we’ve all seen the avalanche – what you put the country through for the better part of three years – until it was found that there was no obstruction. No collision. Case closed,” Pence explained, mentioning the Democrats’ failed efforts to remove the president from office.

“And then, Senator Harris, you and your colleagues in the Congress tried to impeach the President of the United States over a phone call. And now Hillary Clinton has actually said to Joe Biden, in her words, under no circumstances should he concede the election,” he said.

“So let me just say I think we’re going to win this election,” Pence said, adding that he believes “in all my heart that President Donald Trump’s going to be reelected for four more years.”

Pence is correct in that the efforts to stop Trump began before he assumed office, and they occurred in a variety of ways. Over the summer, notes “from a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent during an intelligence briefing in August 2016 that was supposed to be a routine briefing for presidential candidates but was secretly used to spy on the Trump campaign” were released, as Breitbart News detailed:

The August 30, 2016, notes revealed that the FBI agent took special note of anything then-candidate Donald Trump and his adviser Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Michael Flynn said or asked regarding Russia.

The notes also show neither Trump nor Flynn saying anything suspicious, and that the FBI never warned the Trump campaign that they were suspected targets of a Russian operation — even as they briefed it on common foreign intelligence threats that campaigns face.

…

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed last year that the FBI had used the briefing — that was supposed to help presidential campaigns be aware of foreign intelligence threats — as an opportunity to spy on the campaign.

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia collusion investigation did not end in the way Democrats hoped, as the report found no evidence that the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia.

After the political dead end, Democrats switched gears, focusing on a phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — yet another endeavor that proved to be fruitless.

As Pence said, failed Trump challenger Hillary Clinton did, in fact, tell Biden not to concede:

“But at least we know more about what they’re going to do. And Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances,” she told former communications director Jennifer Palmieri in August.

“Because I think this is going to drag out and eventually I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch,” she added.

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