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Maduro pardon? Truth behind viral claim about Donald Trump and '2020 rigged election'
A claim has gone viral that President Trump is considering a pardon for Venezuela's Maduro in exchange for him claiming they helped rig the 2020 election.
A claim has gone viral that President Donald Trump is considering a pardon for Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro. To be sure, these claims come from unverified sources and have been amplified online. The POTUS instructed US troops to enter Venezuela and capture Maduro, which they did, bringing him and his wife back to the US to be indicted.
However, the most recent claim says that Trump might be willing to write all that off in exchange for Maduro claiming that Venezuela helped rig the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden. Trump has long maintained that the 2020 polls were rigged and that he would have otherwise won. The Capitol insurrection by his supporters took place even as Trump maintained that the election had been stolen from him.
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“It appears as though Trump may be offering up a pardon to Nicolás Maduro in exchange for him making claims that Venezuela helped rig the 2020 U.S. election for Joe Biden,” a post on X claimed.
It added, “This would do two things for Trump. #1) Trump will do anything to try and convince people he really won the 2020 election in which he got clobbered in. #2) It could give him cover to call in the military to seize voting machines and/or scare people into not voting for the midterms.”
Many linked this claim to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s participation in the FBI raid at the Georgia county election office.
“Tulsi Gabbard skulking around election center in GA raided yesterday by the FBI. My surmise: the regime plans to ‘discover evidence’ Maduro ran the 2020 election from Venezuela. Captive Maduro can ‘confess’ for a Trumpian 'reward',” a person said on X.
Is Trump considering a pardon for Maduro?
Despite the claims going viral, there is no concrete evidence that Trump is considering a pardon for Maduro. The White House or the President have not officially commented on the matter.
Grok too fact-checked the claims, saying “No, that's not accurate. There's no evidence of Trump offering Maduro a pardon for election claims. Maduro was captured on drug charges, and 2020 Venezuela rigging theories are debunked by courts and fact-checkers like Politifact and Forbes. Trump has revived these claims, but they're baseless.”
Sometime back, GOP Congressman Barry Loudermilk hinted at Maduro allegedly exposing the ‘2020 election fraud’. “It's definintely of interest. There is a reason that the Democrats are so upset over the apprehension of Maduro. A lot of their opposition doesn't make a lot of sense. It could be because it's the beginning of it all unraveling,” he said in an interview with right-wing activist Benny Johnson.
Meanwhile, Gabbard's involvement has raised concerns even as the Trump administration has backed her participation in the raid. A Trump administration official said Gabbard has a pivotal role in protecting the security and integrity of US elections against interference — including operations targeting voting systems, databases and infrastructure. She will continue to work with inter-agency partners as part of that effort, the official added, as per Bloomberg.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee was quick to raise concern. He noted that there could only be two reasons for Gabbard to be part of the raid. The first was the involvement of foreign intelligence, which she'd have to report to relevant Congressional committees. He added, “Or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.”
