Josh Shapiro Bluntly Factchecks Trump Over Post Claiming 'Fraudulent' Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots

Despite recently admitting he lost the 2020 election "by a whisker"—or 7,060,347 whiskers to be precise—during a podcast appearance with Lex Fridman, former Republican President Donald Trump couldn't resist regurgitating more unsupported false claims refuting his election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

Trump's latest addition to his Big Lie came care of ousted Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and involved false claims about mail-in voting in Pennsylvania in 2020.

On Sunday, Trump posted:

"An interview by Tucker Carlson of an election expert indicates that 20% of the Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent. Here we go again!"

Despite Trump’s urgent tone, the false claims he cites were shared on social media by Carlson over four months ago.

You can see Carlson's April 2024 contribution to Trump’s Big Lie here.

It's unclear if Trump was previously unaware of the interview or hadn’t needed to use it until Sunday—two days before he's slated to debate Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

If it was an attempt to drum up support in the Keystone State, it appears unsuccessful.

Although most would point to another reason for Trump treating the April interview like new information.

Trump continued on his Truth Social post:

"Where is the U.S. Attorney General and FBI to INVESTIGATE? Where is the Pennsylvania Republican Party?"

"We will WIN Pennsylvania by a lot, unless the Dems are allowed to CHEAT. THE RNC MUST ACTIVATE, NOW!!!"

@@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social

But Pennsylvania's former Attorney General and current Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro was unwilling to let Trump’s latest lies about his state go unanswered.

Governor Shapiro first cleared up some people's confusion over which election Trump was referencing with his "here we go again" line.

The Pennsylvania Democratic leader clarified:

"First, mail ballots haven’t even been sent out yet."

Then Governor Shapiro tackled Trump’s lies about 2020 voting by citing the results from challenges Trump’s legal team—led by Rudy Giuliani—filed about the Pennsylvania election results.

At the time of the multiple court cases filed by Trump's lawyers, Shapiro was the duly elected Attorney General for the state—a position he held from January 2017 until he became governor in January 2023.

Governor Shapiro continued:

"Second, we conduct two audits every election to ensure every vote is legitimate."

"But if Trump really wants to start this again, let me remind him of 2020: we beat him in court 43 times."

"We're ready to defend our democracy again."

People across social media pegged Trump's motive.

They saw Trump's post as trying to get the Big Lie 2.0 off the ground early before his next election loss.

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And some pointed out that while mail-in voting is a favorite target for Trump, it's also a method he's used repeatedly to cast his own votes.

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But Trump does have reason to fear his election chances.

More and more Republicans are publicly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

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Trump is slated to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, September 10 at 9pm ET.