Atlanta – Last night, the Republican National Convention (RNC) concluded its four days of events which highlighted MAGA extremists and election deniers who are making it clear they will not accept the results of the 2024 election unless Donald Trump wins.

The RNC was marked by a disturbing recurrence of false and anti-democracy rhetoric, from conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and preemptive doubts about the integrity of the upcoming 2024 election to anti-immigrant conspiracy theories that falsely suggest non-citizens are voting illegally and disrupting elections. These themes were repeatedly emphasized across the speeches and presentations during the convention. Lauren Groh-Wargo, Fair Fight CEO, offered the following in response:

"The extremism on display at the RNC should alarm every American who values freedom. MAGA leaders keep pushing Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, are advancing cynical voter suppression litigation, and are laying the groundwork to challenge the 2024 election results if Trump loses. The MAGA operation has become even more extreme and dangerous. Some of Trump’s strongest supporters have insinuated there could be violence if he loses in November.

“Despite Trump trying to distance himself from Project 2025, authors of the plan threatening Americans’ freedoms spoke at the RNC, reaffirming its connection to the MAGA operation. At an event they hosted during the RNC, the President of the Heritage Foundation, who’s leading Project 2025, suggested there’s no difference between Trump’s platform, the RNC’s platform, and Project 2025.

"Fair Fight launched a new volunteer recruitment campaign to make a difference in this election by engaging voters in key battleground states. Join us to raise awareness about the dangers of a second Trump term and defeat him at the ballot box — go to FairFight.com/LFGV.”

Extremism and Election Denial on Full Display at the RNC:

• In Trump’s speech to accept the Republican nomination, he again lied about the 2020 election, espousing a false conspiracy theory that Democrats “used Covid to cheat.” Trump continues to deny he lost the 2020 election.
• Trump’s pre-recorded video appearances repeated 2020 election fraud lies and pushed a baseless conspiracy theory about potential fraud in the 2024 election: “Keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do cheat,” he said.
• Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, several authors and contributors to the extreme plan, including Tom Homan, Peter Navarro, and Ric Grenell, spoke during the convention. During the RNC, the leader of the Heritage Foundation, the driving force behind Project 2025, said Trump's agenda, the RNC's agenda, and Project 2025 are fundamentally aligned with one another.
• Peter Navarro, a former Trump admin. official and Project 2025 contributor, said immigrants are stealing jobs from Americans: “A whole army of illiterate, illegal immigrants stealing the jobs of Black, brown, and blue-collar Americans,” he said.
• "We're going to have to make sure we have people watching [the election] very closely." – Donald Trump Jr.
• “Bottom line to every single thing that’s going on in this great country today is one thing: we become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November.” – West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.
• “As far as you can feel in this room right now, it certainly feels that way.” – Lara Trump, asked by CNN if she agrees the only way Trump could lose in November is due to election fraud.
• “If this election gets stolen, Trump won’t have to call for a meeting…Americans will be showing up on the doorsteps of Washington, D.C. themselves. This is where we draw a line in the sand. They will not do this to us again, and if they do, we’re going to have to do something about it.” – Texas delegate Milinda Morris.
• “I think it’s dishonest for the press to say the Republicans are lying that there was anything wrong with [the 2020] election, there was.” – Alaska delegate Dave Donley.
• U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Rick Scott and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that Democrats rig elections by allowing non-citizens to vote:
  • Sen. Cruz said immigrant crime “happened because Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children.”
  • Sen. Scott went full conspiracy, claiming that “it was easy for Democrats to rig the elections; they simply allowed all the noncitizens to vote.”
  • “We cannot allow the many millions of illegal aliens they allowed to cross our borders, harm our citizens, or disrupt our elections. We will not allow it.” – Speaker Johnson.
• U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise falsely claimed that President Biden and Vice President Harris want non-citizens to vote, despite no evidence supporting this. He stated, “Biden and Harris want illegals to vote now that they’ve opened up the border.”

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