CNN's "Big Lie" is a Big Lie

CNN has written several articles and aired hours of programming pushing and promoting a term called "The Big Lie". This came almost immediately after the 2020 election when CNN published an article titled "Trump falsely claims ‘millions of people who voted illegally’ cost him popular vote" followed by countless others such as the "The 5 key elements of Trump's Big Lie and how it came to be" seven months later.

They are still talking about it and publishing works and programming pushing the term, however, this is disingenuous on CNN's part, and designed by their own selective programming.

The CNN Claim

In the latter article, the author claims these points are a "The Big Lie" ("TBL").

The election was stolen because it's not possible Trump didn't win.
There was a massive technological conspiracy to rig the election.
Theories and wild claims pushed on the internet find their way into lawsuits and are then pushed by Trump.
Investigators are biased, too.
Trump supporters questioning the results are just being good citizens

In response to these 5 claims we assert the following:

The election was stolen because it's not possible Trump didn't win.

This was not an argument of Trumps

There was a massive technological conspiracy to rig the election.

This was also not an argument of Trumps, this came from an unaffiliated attorney (Powell).

Theories and wild claims pushed on the internet find their way into lawsuits and are then pushed by Trump.

This is not a Trump lie, this is a Trump repeating the same stories CNN kept reporting as well, although in CNN's case they made every attempt to debunk them claiming success in many cases where they were not successful.

Notably, CNN and other media appeared to exclusively report on only the more obvious falsehoods in support of their "unfounded claims" narrative while completely ignoring claims with any validity.

For example, here's just a few arrests in Texas alone (2020/2021):

Raquel Rodriguez - Election fraud, illegal voting, unlawfully assisting people voting by mail and unlawfully possessing an official ballot.
Hervis Rogers - Illegally voting.
Kelly Reagan Brunner - 134 counts of voter fraud.
Dana DeBeauvoir - Criminal Trespassing
Tomas Ramirez - Election fraud, assisting voter voting ballot by mail, unlawful possession of a ballot or ballot envelope.
Leonor Rivas Garza - Election Fraud
Eva Ann Martinez - Election Fraud
Mary Balderrama - Election Fraud
Monica Rene Mendez - Illegal voting, Unlawful voter assistance, Returning marked ballots without consent, and Election fraud
The following were indicted for Engaging in Organized Election Fraud, Fraudulent Use of Mail Ballot Application, Unlawful Possession of Ballot/Ballot Envelope, Election Fraud, and Tampering With a Governmental Record.

Shannon Brown - 23 felony counts.
Marlena Jackson - 97 felony counts.
Charlie Burns - 8 felony counts
DeWayne Ward - 6 felony counts.

All of the above are all for voter fraud CNN claims does not exist in the United States, yet not one single word mentioned by CNN.
In contrast, there are over 80 articles with Mike Lindell (My Pillow CEO), many with claims whose credibility were blatantly obvious.
There are several reports regarding Sydney Powell who made several accusations in regards to voting machines that were far-fetched in many opinions.

Investigators are biased, too.

This argument is irrelevant given the fact that it is referring to an investigation into Jan. 6th which has absolutely nothing to do with the election and took place well after Trump had conceded.

Trump supporters questioning the results are just being good citizens

This is equally as irrelevant and also referring to the Jan 6th attack which again, has nothing to do with the election and what CNN called the "Big Lie" initially.

The two latter refer to an evenT after the election and after Trump conceded which, furthermore, makes no assertion of a lie or statement made by Trump to mislead anyone about anything. These are 5 misleading false claims by CNN.

Some of the above of may have been claimed by allies or Trump himself at one point or another, but this is not, nor was it ever, the premise of the initial and ongoing Trump argument.

It was, has always been, and continues to be premised by non-legislative rulings, but they do not mention that point and it's really the only valid point.

Why? We can only guess, but the likely reason is because it's a credible point that only the Supreme Court can rule on.

Note: FalseFactCheck.org fully agrees that Joe Biden won the election according to the legal process, this article is not an argument otherwise. As stated, only the Supreme Court can rule on non-legislative rulings and that has not happened. Until it does, Biden lawfully won the election.

That said, the Constitution does indeed appear to agree with Trump as is evident by Bush v. Gore, 531 US 98 (2000) when the court held that

"The right to vote is protected in more than the initial allocation of the franchise. Equal protection applies as well to the manner of its exercise. Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that See, e. g., Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections, 383 U. S. 663, 665 (1966)" - 531 U. S. 98 (2000)

there are a few exceptional cases in which the Constitution imposes a duty or confers a power on a particular branch of a State's government. This is one of them. Article II, § 1, cl. 2, provides that "[e]ach State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct," electors for President and Vice President. (Emphasis added.).. In McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U. S. 1 (1892), we explained that Art. II, § 1, cl. 2, "convey[s] the broadest power of determination" and "leaves it to the legislature exclusively to define the method" of appointment. 146 U. S., at 27. A significant departure from the legislative scheme for appointing Presidential electors presents a federal constitutional question." -REHNQUIST, C. J.

Which is precisely what happened in several states when non-legislative rulings were put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that appears to violate the U.S. Constitution as shown above. Again however, only the Supreme Court can rule on this.

The state of Texas attempted to get a ruling in regards to various jurisdictions stating that:

Non-legislative actors’ purported amendments to States’ duly enacted election laws, in violation of the Electors Clause’s vesting State legislatures with plenary authority regarding the appointment of presidential electors.

However, the court declined the complaint due to a lack of standing. This was the accurate decision since Texas claimed the state itself was injured, which was all it could do, and what it needed to due was show injury to its citizens, which at the time, were indiscernible.

Despite this, the premise of the case itself was indeed viable and credible. However, without injury, there is no way for the Supreme Court to rule due to the lack of standing.

Again, this is a valid claim and one that only the Supreme Court to rule on and this is evidenced by the non-legislative rulings filed in several states and part of public record which alone, debunks the "no evidence" claim that continues to circulate as well as any claims of "non election fraud: since no court, corporation, individual, or legal entity can make this legal decision other than the Supreme Court of the United States.

What Donald Trump Actually Said

Trump began complaining about this, not in November, but early in 2020 and continued to make this his primary issue all the way up to his final speech on January 6th.

Here is an excerpt from his actual speech, with his own actual words:

Donald Trump: (34:06)
In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before. And I think we'd go a long way outside of our country when I say that.

Donald Trump: (34:34)
So just in a nutshell, you can't make a change on voting for a federal election unless the state legislature approves it. No judge can do it. Nobody can do it, only a legislature. So as an example in Pennsylvania or whatever, you have a Republican legislature, you have a Democrat mayor, and you have a lot of Democrats all over the place. They go to the legislature, the legislature laughs at them. Says, "We're not going to do that." They say, "Thank you very much." And they go and make the changes themselves. They do it anyway. And that's totally illegal. That's totally illegal. You can't do that.

He then goes on to list occurrences and situations of relevance such as:

In Pennsylvania, the Democrat Secretary of State and the Democrat State Supreme Court justices illegally abolished the signature verification requirements just 11 days prior to the election.

In addition he listed some discrepancies as he understood them, however, the aforementioned premise was and always has been his key complaint.

True, Trump did share other claims, some of which have been found to be inaccurate or exaggerated, however, this was not, nor was it ever, his primary complaint.

CNN is not the Supreme Court. CNN does not determine was is or is not Constitutional. This is a Constitutional complaint of which only the Supreme Court can decide on.

CNN and Media Omission

Despite this being the primary complaint, there is almost no media mention of this anywhere throughout the election and certainly not as part of the "Big Lie" which is the actually biggest part of his complaint.

In our opinion, they likely fail to mention this because it is credible and possible accurate based on past rulings. This doesn't fit the narrative.

CNN and other outlets jumped on Trump the nano-second he make any mention of a stolen election claiming everything he said was at first "unfounded" despite not even having time to obtain, much less review any potential evidence or fully understand the complaint.

Trump claimed the election was stolen by non-legislative ruling pushed by Democrats.

The media changed its description of Trumps claims over time which went something to the effect of:

Unfounded claims
There's no evidence of fraud
There's no evidence of voter fraud
There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud
There's no evidence of systematic widespread voter fraud
The Big Lie

The media pushed, featured, and commented on absurd claims of the Mike Lyndell, Sydney Powell, and extreme right-winged social media, but never once bothered to mention the primary complaint that premised Trump's position.

None of these wild claims originated from Trump, however, he passed them along as he learned of them. The only one that did originate from Trump is the only one the media fails to ever mention. Non-legislative rulings.

In doing so they manufactured the entire fabrication by building up the discreditable and debunked ridiculousness while not reporting on valid findings or Trump's primary claim. We find this to be intentionally disingenuous, but that is our opinion.

Note: FalseFactCheck.org does not claim in any way that Trump won the election, nor that the election was stolen, and fully agree that Joe Biden is President legally since there is no Supreme Court ruling o Trumps complaint. We are merely presenting the facts.

Summary

While some of this is opinion (applicable paragraphs noted), we only suspect CNN purposely manufactured this story, the fact of the false claims remain and there are 8 of them total.

Claim: "The Big Lie"

Fact Check Verdict: 8 FALSE CLAIMS

We scored this with 2 false articles containing 6 false claims.

Claimant: CNN