DEBUNKED: Rachel Maddow’s Misreading of Trump’s “We Don’t Need the Votes” (Full Context)

CLAIM: “Maddow points out frightening truth about Trump’s lack of concern about votes”

On July 30, 2024, Rachel Maddow alleged that the “frightening truth”  is that when Trump said “We don’t need the votes,” he was suggesting he could seize power without winning the election:

He doesn’t think he needs to win the vote to win the election. He doesn’t think he needs to win the election in order to take power

But Maddow’s misconstrual depends on cherry-picked quotations that twist the meaning of Trump’s words. After reviewing the full context, it’s clear that in two of her five quotations, Trump was actually imploring his supporters to get out and vote!  Had Maddow begun the clips 45 seconds  before, her ‘frightening” clipped soundbites would not have supported her theory. Her own producer admitted the “theory” wasn’t true  4 days prior, saying that Trump isn’t literally telling Americans not to cast ballots, he’s instead arguing that he’s so wildly popular, receiving support from voters will be effortless as Election Day nears.

Here’s the truth behind those five misleading quotes

Contents:

1) Watch: Rachel’s “frightening” theory:

Trump’s statement, “We don’t need the votes,” was not a call for a power grab but a reference to his belief that his popularity would ensure a win—unless there was significant cheating. The real focus of his remarks was not on undermining the election process but on guarding against alleged electoral fraud. Despite his lack of evidence, and the possibility he was setting up a scapegoat for his potential failure, the context here is crucial: Trump wasn’t saying “he doesn’t need to win the vote in order to win the election,” but was invoking the “bandwagon effect” — everyone can see that we’re winning.  Look at all the yard signs! — and he was suggesting that the only remaining battle was against fraud, not voter turnout.

2) The Five Quotes — now with Full Context:

Click the quotes to play the videos and view the context for the 5 quotes cited by Maddow:

3) Were Rachel and her producer “playing dumb?”

It’s hard to believe that Rachel Maddow and her producer, Steve Benen, were unaware of the full context of Trump’s statements as their staff had to locate and clip out these 5 soundbites. In a July 26 column, Benen himself acknowledged that Trump wasn’t telling supporters not to vote because he could simply seize power some other way, but was instead focusing on his belief that he could win unless significant cheating occurred.

Maddow’s show is so blatantly misrepresenting Trump that within 45 seconds before her soundbites, we hear Trump say:

• So if you want to save America get your friends get your family and get everyone out to vote you got to go vote I’ll say it again and again vote [Applause] Christians you gotta vote and do it early if you want you know do it early do it just do it you got to vote and watch your vote guard your vote and follow your vote follow your vote Michael Watley is doing a great job he’s here Michael thank you very much Michael thank you and if you want to volunteer to help us defend election Integrity sign up at protectthevote.com I tell my people I don’t need any votes we got all the votes we need I don’t need votes all I want to do is make sure that we guard our vote
  — Right Side Broadcasting, Washington, DC Rally, June 22
• Go out get your family get your friends get everyone you know and vote vote early vote absentee vote on Election Day but whatever you do you have to go out and vote you have to vote   — Chesapeak, VA, June 18, 2024

So why did Maddow’s show (apparently) deliberately misinterpret Trump’s words? We don’t know, but the answer is consistent with the incentives the media has to distort complex statements to fit sensational narratives, even when the truth is clear.  Here is Maddow’s producer Steve Bennan, admitting on July 26 (4 days before Maddow’s video) that he knows Trump is not telling his supporters they don’t need to vote because Trump will seize power some other way:

4) Reforming Journalism

The misrepresentation of Trump’s words by the media is just one example of how modern journalism distorts the truth to fit a narrative.  Matt Taibbi’s book Hate, Inc. argues that much of the media industry thrives on emotional manipulation and sensationalism, often at the expense of their audience and of truth. This approach erodes public trust and undermines the integrity of our civic discourse.

To help combat this trend, I’ve developed the CiteIt App (used in this article) to enable responsible writers to build reader trust and understanding by displaying context to the reader.  The App looks up the full context of cited quotes—allowing readers to easily see the surrounding information and make up their own minds, without having to interrupt their reading process by following a link away from the article.

The video below shows how easy it is for authors to create the type of contextual citations featured in this article:

Demo: Using the CiteIt App to lookup and display quote context:  

If you’re a journalist or writer looking to differentiate yourself from the “less responsible” media through greater transparency, check out the CiteIt homepage.  I plan to pitch the App to Substack and your feedback could be helpful with my pitch.

• Email me or reply on Twitter. 

 

1) View Twitter Thread: 1/6 Did Rachel Maddow know she was taking Trump’s quotes out of context as @mtabbi and @walterkirn suspected?

2) More: CiteIt Articles

1. Solutions for Journalism Reform, November 8, 2024
2. Demo Article: Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipelines? “Russia, Russia, Russia!”, by Matt Taibbi