Donald Trump’s New Hampshire victory speech was full of false claims

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Former president Donald Trump’s New Hampshire victory speech was riddled with false claims and inaccurate statements, prompting networks to fact-check him in real-time.

Both CNN and MSNBC were forced to fact-check Mr Trump after his win in the first-in-the-nation primary.

Mr Trump spewed inaccuracies about previous elections.

The former president claimed that Democrats “used Covid to cheat” in the last presidential election. CNN host Jake Tapper interjected, saying, “Obviously, Donald Trump did not win in 2020, he lost that election and that’s been adjudicated over and over again, although to the crowd he’s speaking to, they believe it even though it’s a lie.”

He then asserted that he had won New Hampshire in the last two elections. “You know we won New Hampshire three times now three. We win it every time. We win the primary. We win the generals. We won it and it’s a very, very special place to me,” Mr Trump claimed.

While he has historically won the state’s GOP primaries, Hillary Clinton won the Granite State in 2016, and Joe Biden did the same in 2020.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow remarked, “So, the former president has opened his remarks tonight once again by proclaiming falsehoods about previous elections. This is what makes it hard to take him—his pronouncements live. We’ll try again, though. Here we go.”

Mr Trump also dug into primary voters, baselessly claiming that Democrats registered in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

He said, “In the Republican primary, they accepted Democrats to vote. In fact, I think they had 4,000 Democrats – Democrats before October 6 – they already voted. Now, they’re only voting because they want to make me look as bad as possible.”

In October, the New Hampshire secretary of state’s office announced that roughly 4,000 Democrats in the state changed their party registration to either Republican or “undeclared.” The last day to change one’s party affiliation before the 2024 Presidential Primary was 6 October, 2023.

Despite Mr Trump’s remarks, only individuals registered as Republicans or independents can vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

Regardless of his numerous baseless claims, Mr Trump defeated his Republican rival Nikki Haley by an 11-point margin in Tuesday’s primary. Earlier this month, he resoundingly won the Iowa caucuses.