Polygraph

Venezuelan election manipulators have been manipulating elections for 20 years in 72 countries.

Posted by Ask Dr. Drew, Checked

Polygraph verdictCan’t tell
Sources
1 contradict6 context
Said
1 time·
Confidence
40%
Ask Dr. DrewOct 21, 2026
View on Podcast ↗
Video frame
72 claimsThe check →

The claim is an anecdote from the claimant's own passage, a Venezuelan speaker's remark about 20 years and 72 countries, and the sources do not independently corroborate the 72-country, 20-year figure.

What was said

… I don't need to see anymore." And we were about to leave, and I said to one of the Venezuelans, "Tell the general how much this has been going on." The kind of guy kind of gulped, and he looked General Flynn in the eye and said, "Sir, we've been manipulating elections for 20 years in 72 countries." So that process I described to you is really why the West is crashing into a bridge abutment. From China, they have been making the choices. The actual dirty work has been this Venezuelan-Cuban project. …
Ask Dr. Drew · · from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Contradicts. FactCheck.org finds no evidence that touchscreen voting machines are deliberately switching voter selections, attributing reported problems to calibration issues or voter error. This dismisses the broader machine-manipulation allegation the post belongs to, though not the specific 72-country claim.[1]

Context. The 72-nation, roughly 20-year scope appears only in an unrated declassification-style document that echoes the claim, which is not independent corroboration.[6]

Context. Primary and tier-1 sources document Maduro-era electoral manipulation inside Venezuela (2018, 2020, 2024), but none addresses election manipulation by Venezuelans in 72 other countries.[2][3][4][5][7]

Context. The post's passage is the claimant's own account of a meeting and is not evidence. The extraction faithfully reflects the quoted statement, with 'Venezuelan election manipulators' resolved from the speaker's identity in the post.

Sources

7 sources: 3 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 2 not rated

  1. 1venezuela Archives - FactCheck.orgfactcheck.org · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts
  2. 2West hits pause on fresh measures against Venezuela's ...reuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
  3. 3UN human rights watchdog opens investigation into ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
  4. 4Venezuela: A Democratic Crisis2017-2021.state.gov · primary source · cited for: context
  5. 5Human Rights Reports: Custom Report Excerpts2021-2025.state.gov · primary source · cited for: context
  6. 6Election Interference By The Chinese, Cuban, and ...x.com · not rated · cited for: context
  7. 7[PDF] AR2024 Chap. 4B Venezuela ENscm.oas.org · not rated · cited for: context

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

How Polygraph checks a claim

Our Weekly Newsletter

The Readout

The week's most-shared posts, checked. What they claimed, how they argued, and what held up.

Unsubscribe any time. See our privacy policy.