Polygraph

"Protecting our elections"

Deadline: White House, Checked

Polygraph score
93Holds up27 claims checked
Details
What it claims
7 mixed9 can’t tell27 true
How it argues
Nothing found
How it persuades
Insinuation
What it’s built on
Nothing found
Sources
2 rated low
Deadline: White HouseOct 20, 2026
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Deadline: White House cover art
Deadline: White House"Protecting our elections"Whole episode, 43:08
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43 claims8 places a technique or frame shows

What it claims

Claims

  1. 1TrueThe 2026 midterm elections are scheduled for November 3, 2026.Multiple tier1 sources (AP calendar, Reuters, BBC) and several others state that the 2026 midterm general election is on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, matching the claim. The post's own passage says midterms are two weeks away from October 20, consistent with a November 3 date, so the claim does not depart from the passage.4 sources →
  2. 2TrueDonald Trump fired Chris Krebs from his position as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.Multiple tier1 and tier2 sources (AP, Reuters, BBC, NPR, CNN, ABC) report that President Trump fired Chris Krebs as director of CISA on November 17, 2020, via a tweet. The claim's core assertion is directly corroborated; the post's phrasing about firing 'for making sure the election was secure' matches sources describing the firing as tied to Krebs's election-security statement.6 sources →

    ▶ 0:34

  3. 3TruePolitical appointees at the Department of Homeland Security requested that CISA secretly acquire and hack a voting machine at the beginning of President Trump's second term.ProPublica's October 19, 2026 investigation reports that DHS political appointees asked CISA to secretly acquire and hack a voting machine a few months into Trump's second term, citing two former administration officials. No source contradicts this, but the other outlets largely repeat ProPublica's reporting, and the DHS and CISA did not respond to questions, so the claim rests on a single investigation with anonymous sources.6 sources →

    ▶ 1:28

  4. 4TrueCISA employees were unable to fulfill the request to hack a voting machine because the agents capable of doing so had been laid off by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative.ProPublica reports that CISA employees told political appointees the hacking request was impossible, in part because the agents capable of such an operation had just been laid off by DOGE, and that the request was not acted on. The claim drops the qualifier "in part" but otherwise matches the reporting; independent 2025 reports corroborate that DOGE cut CISA red-team staff.6 sources →

    ▶ 2:03

  5. 5TrueA group of about ten current and former U.S. national security officials has been advising state governments and congressional lawmakers on how to prepare for potential interference by the Trump administration.Multiple outlets, including the Washington Post original report from 2026-10-20 and later syndications and follow-ups, report that about ten current and former U.S. national security officials have been discreetly advising state governments and congressional lawmakers on preparing for possible Trump administration interference in the midterms. The coverage traces back to one Post report based on anonymous participants, and the White House disputed the concerns without denying the group's existence.8 sources →

    ▶ 2:43

  6. 6TrueChris Krebs helped create CISA during the first Trump administration.Multiple tier1 and tier2 sources state that Chris Krebs was CISA's first director and that CISA was created under Trump's first administration (signed 2018), with Krebs appointed in 2017 and confirmed in 2018, so he helped create the agency during Trump 1.0. The extraction's 'had a hand in creating' is a faithful paraphrase of the passage, and the claim is not contradicted by any source.8 sources →

    ▶ 4:52

  7. 7MixedCISA was established by George W. Bush and Donald Trump.Trump is supported as the establishing figure: CISA was created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018, which he signed on November 16, 2018. Bush's role is overstated, since the sources show only that its predecessor, NPPD, was formed within DHS in 2007 under his administration, not that he established CISA. The claim matches the passage's wording, so no extraction departure applies.6 sources →

    ▶ 5:58

  8. 8Can’t tellThe Trump administration cut the CISA budget by one-third.The post says they "cut it by a third" about the agency, and sources show roughly one-third of CISA's workforce was cut, but the claim's object "budget" is an addition the passage never makes. The budget figures in the sources (about $495M or 18% in the FY2026 proposal, and about $3B to $2.4B in requests) are not one-third, so the claim departs from the passage and cannot be graded as the poster's statement.8 sources →

    ▶ 6:08

  9. 9TrueTulsi Gabbard enacted a plan in Puerto Rico to research voting machines.Reuters and NBC News, both reporting in February 2026, confirm that Gabbard's Office of the Director of National Intelligence obtained and examined Puerto Rico's voting machines in 2025 to look for security vulnerabilities, which matches the claim. The claim drops the passage's word 'similar' and does not say the plan was the same as the CISA request, but that is a faithful paraphrase of the core action and does not change the verdict.7 sources →

    ▶ 7:43

  10. 10MixedThe Trump administration terminated a contract with a research contractor in Puerto Rico after the contractor failed to find evidence of 2020 election rigging.Multiple reports (ProPublica, CNN, Reuters, GovExec) say the administration stopped renewing or shut down the Puerto Rico contract with Mojave Research after the firm found no evidence supporting 2020 fraud claims. However, an ODNI spokesperson told reporters the work ceased because Mojave had completed its contract, so the causal link is disputed by an official source. The claim's core sequence is supported, but its stated reason is contested.4 sources →

    ▶ 7:56

  11. 11TrueThe Department of Justice conducted a raid on Fulton County.Multiple reliable sources report that FBI agents executed a search warrant at Fulton County's election hub on January 28, 2026, seizing 2020 ballots and records, and USA Today states the FBI is part of the Department of Justice and that the affidavit came from DOJ's request. The claim's "Department of Justice" framing is resolved from the post's own reference to the DOJ and is accurate under the sources' description of the FBI as part of DOJ.5 sources →

    ▶ 10:02

  12. 12TrueThe Trump administration sent a list of voters to California for removal from voter rolls.Multiple sources report that the Trump administration (DOJ) sent California officials a list of about 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens and demanded they be removed or have ballots set aside, which the state refused; the claim as extracted matches this, and the list was sent October 13, before the October 20 posting. The post's 'list of people they want removed' framing is a fair paraphrase of this record.8 sources →

    ▶ 10:41

  13. 13TrueThe Trump administration has declassified sensitive material that state officials provided to CISA.ProPublica's reporting, which the White House did not dispute on the release itself, says the administration declassified records that included raw state-shared material given to CISA. Fact-checkers confirm the White House released a trove of documents, some declassified or partially redacted, but none directly confirms that the released material included state-provided CISA data, and the echoing outlets repeat ProPublica rather than independently verify it.7 sources →

    ▶ 12:46

  14. 14TrueSome state authorities have stopped sharing information with CISA due to a lack of trust in the Trump administration.ProPublica (Oct 19, 2026) reports that some state election authorities said they no longer trusted the Trump administration enough to share information with CISA, which supports the claim as of 2026-10-20. Several outlets repeat that same ProPublica passage, so the independent support is thinner than the number of articles suggests; the claim's 'have stopped sharing' is a reasonable paraphrase of that reported distrust rather than a separately documented cessation.9 sources →

    ▶ 12:58

  15. 15True28% of Americans are very or somewhat confident that Donald Trump will accept his party's losses in the 2026 election.The ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll (conducted Oct. 9-13, 2026, published Oct. 20) found 28% of Americans very (10%) or somewhat (18%) confident Trump will accept midterm results if Republicans lose, matching the claim as of the claimant's posting date. The claim faithfully reflects the passage, and the poll's figure is consistent across multiple outlets.7 sources →

    ▶ 16:25

  16. 16Mixed70% of Americans are not at all confident that Donald Trump will accept Republican losses in the 2026 election.The 70% figure is accurate for Americans who are not confident (any degree) that Trump would accept Republican midterm losses, per the Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. The claim's specific wording, 'not at all confident,' does not match the record, which puts that group at about half of Americans, not 70%.7 sources →

    ▶ 16:31

  17. 17True77% of independents are not confident that Donald Trump will accept his party's losses.The claim matches the Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll (conducted Oct. 9-13, 2026, reported Oct. 20), which found 77% of independents not confident Trump would accept Republican midterm losses. The claim faithfully reflects the passage, and the finding was accurate as of the 2026-10-20 posting date.10 sources →

    ▶ 16:52

  18. 18MixedThe speaker's organization is currently litigating 90 cases in 41 states.The only relevant source, a Washington Examiner report published November 2, 2026, has Marc Elias saying his Elias Law Group is litigating 92 election-related cases across 42 states, close to but not matching the claimed 90 cases in 41 states. The report is dated after the October 20 claim date and relays the claimant's own statement, and no source names the speaker's organization as the Elias Law Group, so the identification is inferred.Minor detail. The sources confirm the claim; only a minor detail differs, such as a name's spelling, a title's wording or a rounding.1 source →

    ▶ 17:49

  19. 19MixedThe largest 100 law firms in the country employ 130,000 lawyers.The claim's figure of 130,000 lawyers for the largest 100 firms is not what the sources report for that scope. The only headcount total for the Am Law 100 in the sources is 115,043 attorneys (2023 data, published 2024-06-04), about 13% lower, so the figure is overstated for that cohort. The claimed 130,000 matches a different measure: adding up firms with 250+ lawyers in the Law360 400 gives 129,922, which is not the top 100. The sources contain no 2026 headcount data, and the extraction matches the post's wording, so the claim is graded as stated.4 sources →

    ▶ 17:55

  20. 20TrueThe largest 100 law firms in the country represent more than $100 billion of revenue.The 2026 Am Law 100 data, as reported by the ABA Journal in September 2026, puts the 100 largest US firms' combined gross revenue for 2025 at $178.95 billion, well above the claimed $100 billion, so the claim held as of 2026-10-20. Only one source states the combined total, so confidence is capped.4 sources →

    ▶ 18:04

  21. 21TrueTina Peters was convicted of election fraud or interference in Colorado.Multiple sources confirm Tina Peters was convicted by a Colorado jury in 2024 on election-related counts, including attempts to influence a public servant and conspiracy, in what BBC and CBS describe as an election interference case. The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in April 2026, and the later Polis clemency that led to her release did not erase the conviction, so the claim holds as of the posting date.7 sources →

    ▶ 19:51

  22. 22MixedAaron Wrights is a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas appointed by Donald Trump.Sources conflict on who holds the post. A September 2026 USAO SDTX video transcript has Aaron Wrights calling himself the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, but the DOJ profile and the Wikipedia list of Trump appointees name Aaron Reitz (2026–present) for that post, and Wrights does not appear on the Trump list. The claim also departs slightly from the passage, which says only that Wrights is Trump's U.S. Attorney, but the verdict turns on the identity conflict.3 sources →

    ▶ 22:05

  23. 23TrueDonald Trump issued an executive order on March 31, 2026, directing the Department of Justice to prioritize the prosecution of election officials and workers who allow ineligible people to vote.The claim matches the text of Executive Order 14399, signed March 31, 2026, which directs the Attorney General to prioritize investigating and prosecuting State and local election officials who issue Federal ballots to ineligible individuals. The post's claim that part of the order was struck down but a directive survived is not contradicted by the sources, though a June 2026 court ruling blocked the order as a whole, which the summary notes.6 sources →

    ▶ 22:57

  24. 24TrueThe Deputy Attorney General of the United States sent a letter to the state of California warning of potential criminal exposure for tabulating ballots identified by the administration as likely from non-citizens.Multiple tier1 outlets (AP, CNN, ABC, Democracy Docket) report that the Justice Department sent letters warning that officials who knowingly tabulate ballots from people identified as likely noncitizens could face criminal exposure, and the letter quoted by AP was from Trent McCotter. The claim departs slightly from the sources: McCotter was the acting Deputy Attorney General, and the criminal-exposure letters went mainly to county officials (Los Angeles, San Bernardino), while earlier Reuters-reported letters went to Secretary of State Weber, so the core assertion holds but the addressee is imprecise.6 sources →

    ▶ 24:03

  25. 25Can’t tellDonald Trump requested that 11,000 votes be found during the 2020 election.The sources confirm that Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a January 2, 2021 call to "find" 11,780 votes, which was after the November 2020 election. The passage is a hypothetical conditional about a future request ("if Donald Trump comes this time and asks you to find 11,000 votes"), so the claim departs from the passage by stating a past request during the 2020 election.4 sources →

    ▶ 24:53

  26. 26Can’t tellBill Barr stated he would investigate election cases ahead of the 2020 election.The sources cover Barr's September 2, 2020 CNN interview, but none states that he said he would investigate election cases ahead of the 2020 election. The transcript shows him discussing the Durham probe and saying he would "handle these cases as appropriate," which does not clearly match the claim, so the sources neither confirm nor refute it.4 sources →

    ▶ 25:12

  27. 27TrueMike Rogers advocated for the RNC to hire former police officers and sheriffs to stand watch at polling places in Michigan.Multiple sources, including Detroit News reporting quoted by several outlets and a Bridge Michigan fact check, report Rogers saying on an April 17 audio recording to Kalamazoo County GOP that he had advocated with the RNC for retired or off-duty police officers to serve as poll watchers in Detroit. The claim's 'former police officers and sheriffs' and 'Michigan polling places' wording is a slight broadening: the recorded remarks specify retired or off-duty police officers and Detroit, not sheriffs or all Michigan polling places, but the core assertion of advocating with the RNC for former/off-duty police to watch polls holds as of 2026-10-20.8 sources →

    ▶ 26:21

  28. 28PredictionDOGE cuts are projected to result in 5 million fatalities of children under five by 2030.Can't be checked yet.

    ▶ 28:20

  29. 29TrueDemocrats are making investigating Elon Musk and his role in DOGE a signature campaign promise if they win control of the House or Senate.Politico's October 20, 2026 reporting, which the post cited, says Democrats plan to probe Musk over his DOGE tenure, and later October coverage from The Washington Post, The Week, and others confirms the plan. No source uses the phrase 'signature campaign promise' or says the probes are one of several promises, so the 'signature' framing is only loosely supported, and the claim drops the post's 'one of' qualifier. The sources report plans for investigations of Musk and DOGE as of 2026-10-20, so the core assertion holds on that date.5 sources →

    ▶ 29:15

  30. 30Can’t tellElon Musk and Donald Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public.The claim restates a Wall Street Journal report, relayed by several outlets, that Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public. Trump's responses conflict: The Hill quotes him saying "I have not spoken to him," while Reuters and NBC report he declined to say whether he had spoken to Musk, so the sources do not settle whether the call happened. The extraction's dropped campaigning detail is a faithful trim, not an addition.8 sources →

    ▶ 29:56

  31. 31TrueElon Musk is the single largest donor to the Republicans in the 2026 midterm cycle.As of 2026-10-20, multiple tier1 and tier2 sources (AP, Reuters, Politico) reported Musk had become the biggest known donor to Republican groups in the 2026 midterm cycle, with at least $276 million given since July, versus the next-largest donors in later FEC-based tallies. The claim matches the post's wording; later October 30 coverage reaffirms the status, and no source contradicts it.6 sources →

    ▶ 30:39

  32. 32TrueElon Musk threatened legal action over the documentary film Musk directed by Alex Gibney.Multiple reliable sources (Reuters, AP, Yahoo, France24, SF Chronicle) report that Elon Musk's attorney Alex Spiro sent Gibney's production company a formal legal notice threatening legal action over the documentary "Musk" directed by Alex Gibney. The claim's wording matches the post's passage, which refers to the film directly, and the sources' description of the film as Gibney's documentary about Musk is consistent with the claim's framing.5 sources →

    ▶ 31:46

  33. 33TrueElon Musk was facing civil investigations by 11 different agencies.Multiple sources, including a New York Times review cited by Congress and NPR and a Senate minority staff memo, report that at least 11 federal agencies had over 32 open investigations, complaints, or enforcement actions against Musk's companies, which supports the claim. The extraction faithfully reflects the passage, and the sources describe mostly civil and regulatory matters, though some actions could be criminal, so the 'civil' label is only loosely precise.5 sources →

    ▶ 34:52

  34. 34TrueElon Musk was facing investigations by 11 different agencies and a criminal investigation into fraud at Tesla.The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations minority memo states that as of January 20, 2025, Musk and his companies faced at least 65 actions from 11 federal agencies, and multiple outlets report the same count. Reporting from AP and Reuters confirms a Justice Department criminal investigation into Tesla, including whether its self-driving claims constituted fraud. The extraction dropped the post's '32 investigations' figure, which does not change the claim graded here.6 sources →

    ▶ 34:57

  35. 35Can’t tellThe Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) added to the federal deficit.The sources show DOGE's savings were small and that it did not reduce the deficit (Fortune, Reuters, Reason), but none measures or states that DOGE itself increased the deficit. The extracted claim also drops the post's word "massively" and the post's emphasis, which the sources' "modest impact" findings would contradict.5 sources →

    ▶ 35:30

  36. 36TrueElon Musk is attempting to buy a state park in South Texas.As of 2026-10-20, reporting supports the claim that Musk (through SpaceX) was trying to acquire a South Texas state park, Boca Chica State Park, though the sale was not officially confirmed and state officials disputed that a vote would come in November. The extraction is faithful to the post, which refers to Musk as "he".3 sources →

    ▶ 38:07

  37. 37MixedElon Musk spent between $100 million and $150 million in the Texas midterm race.The claim's range of $100M to $150M is only partly supported. Musk's disclosed contributions tied to the Texas Senate race were about $158M (via the Senate Leadership Fund, passed to Texas PAC), plus $10M to Lone Star Liberty PAC, which exceeds the $150M ceiling. Texas PAC's own spending, reported at more than $148M by October 19, falls inside the range, so the result depends on whether contributions or spending is counted. The speaker's 'probably 100-150 million' was an estimate, and by October 20 filings already showed more than $150M.6 sources →

    ▶ 38:50

  38. 38TrueElon Musk is the largest known contributor to the 2026 midterm elections.As of October 12, 2026, AP and Reuters reported that Musk had become the biggest known donor in the midterms, ahead of the October 20 posting date. Later NYT, Al Jazeera and FEC-based coverage through November 1 keeps him at the top of the donor rankings. The claim's wording matches the post, and no source contradicts it.7 sources →

    ▶ 38:59

  39. 39Can’t tellAccording to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk was responsible for the death of a 1-year-old girl in Ukraine due to Starlink and Starshield.The WSJ reporting in the sources supports that Musk ordered the Starlink/Starshield slowdown, but no source mentions a 1-year-old girl's death or attributes any specific death to Musk. The claim's central assertion, that WSJ held Musk responsible for that child's death, is therefore not addressed by the sources, and the extraction faithfully reflects the post's wording.9 sources →

    ▶ 39:44

  40. 40Can’t tellThe death of a one-year-old girl in a park in Ukraine was a direct result of Elon Musk's actions regarding Starlink and Starshield.Sources support that Musk reportedly ordered the Starshield/Starlink speed restriction in Ukraine, and that Zelenskyy linked the disruption to civilian deaths generally. No source ties the death of the one-year-old girl in a Kharkiv park to that restriction, and the one source describing her death (a tweet quoting Zelenskyy) attributes it to a Russian Shahed strike. The claim's specific direct-causation assertion is therefore not established either way.7 sources →

    ▶ 39:44

  41. 41Can’t tellElon Musk was warned in advance that USAID cuts would have disastrous mortal consequences.The sources document that warnings of deadly consequences were issued before or during the USAID cuts, including internal memos and a USAID official's February 2025 memo, but none says those warnings were delivered to Musk himself. The post's sentence matches the extracted claim, so the gap is the unverified recipient, not added content.5 sources →

    ▶ 40:49

  42. 42TrueElon Musk stated that he spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.Musk's February 3, 2025 X post, which the sources quote directly, says "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper," so the claim that he stated it is supported. The post wording is "We" rather than "I", a minor difference that does not change the substance.7 sources →

    ▶ 41:00

  43. 43MixedJohn Solomon stated that no votes were flipped in the 2020, 2024, or 2022 elections.Solomon did tell MS NOW's Vaughn Hillyard that the intelligence community has "zero evidence" that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, '22 or '24, so that part is supported. But the claim drops the qualifiers he used: he said "foreign power," that he was "still researching," and that "we're not through all the documents," so he did not flatly state that no votes were flipped.6 sources →
  44. 44TrueElon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine.The WSJ reported, citing US officials, that Musk ordered the slowdown, and Reuters, AP, The Hill, and Bloomberg all carried that report. Musk initially denied issuing the directive, but on Oct. 24 he acknowledged on X that SpaceX throttled the service, which supports the claim.7 sources →

    ▶ 29:45

How it persuades

  • InsinuationHints at wrongdoing it never states, or states and disownswhat happens if the interference comes from within?The White House didn't answer Pro publica's questions about the hack.The fact that it was made in the first place shows how emboldened Trump is in his efforts to undermine our democracy.The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference.My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any election results they don't likeHow is there any other interpretation of not alerting the voting company if it uncovered flaws?and 2 more in the polygraph

Sources

Fact-checkers 48Primary records 11Most reliable outlets 9Reliable outlets 43Less reliable outlets 4Unrated 117Rated low 2

  • news18.comRated low for factual reporting by Iffy.news · cited in checking claim 38
  • newsbreak.comRated low for factual reporting by Iffy.news · cited in checking claim 13

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