Despite the fact that Joe Biden was sworn in as president almost a week ago and no compelling evidence exists to indicate that the election he won was anything but free and fair, it’s still not hard to find Americans who fervently believe that Donald Trump is the “real” president.
This is partially due to Trump himself repeatedly claiming without evidence that the election results were influenced by widespread voter fraud, but another avenue for this doubt can be attributed to conspiracy theories pushed by Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
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Both have repeatedly accused Dominion altered their voting machines to influence election results in various battleground states despite the fact that Trump’s own Department of Justice uncovered no evidence of any such action.
Such claims are now the subject of a lawsuit by Dominion seeking $1.3 billion in damages from Giuliani and in light of this news, it’s hard to see his recent change in tune as a coincidence.
The $1.3 billion lawsuit in question accuses Giuliani of defamation and asserts that he is responsible for spreading a “Big Lie” across social media that Dominion had “stolen” their votes.
In court documents obtained by CNN , lawyers for Dominion stated, “While some lies — little lies — flare up on social media and die with the next news cycle, the Big Lie was different. The harm to Dominion’s business and reputation is unprecedented and irreparable because of how fervently millions of people believe it.”
Giuliani’s first public statements in the wake of this lawsuit’s filing appeared to double down on his previous claims.
As he told CNN, “Dominion’s defamation lawsuit for $1.3B will allow me to investigate their history, finances, and practices fully and completely. The amount being asked for is, quite obviously, intended to frighten people of faint heart. It is another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech, as well as the ability of lawyers to defend their clients vigorously.”
He has also stated his intent to “investigate a countersuit” against Dominion and claimed their lawsuit violates his constitutional rights.
But mere hours after the lawsuit was filed, Giuliani made some uncharacteristic statements on his WABC-AM radio show.
On Monday afternoon, New York Times reporter Azi Paybarah tweeted out, “Rudy Giuliani on his radio show a few minutes ago: ‘… as far as this election is concerned, it’s over. Biden’s the president, she’s the vice president.'”
Although Business Insider reported that he also said he’ll have a “nice fight” in the courtroom, this marks the first time that Giuliani has publicly acknowledged that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 Presidential Election.
And Giuliani doesn’t appear to be the only one tiptoeing back on statements he’s repeated so often before.
According to Business Insider, Giuliani had also previously claimed that Dominion and another voting machine manufacturer called Smartmatic had colluded to switch votes from Trump to Biden in battleground states.
As one might expect, such claims were afforded ample coverage by pro-Trump media outlet Newsmax.
However, you might notice that the Twitter video shared here seems to tell a very different story about Newsmax’s position.
Although we can see that this is framed as a clarification of their coverage, Business Insider reported that Newsmax was one of several right-wing networks who have found themselves admitting they don’t have evidence supporting collusion claims between Smartmatic and Dominion after both companies threatened legal action.
Again, it’s hard to call the timing on these “clarifications” a coincidence.
h/t: CNN , Business Insider
