Prominent evangelist Franklin Graham has said he is inclined to agree with President Trump's claims that the recent US presidential election was rigged. In a Facebook post, Graham said he is inclined to side with Trump's claims, pointing to the president's assertion that the US government was spying on him during his campaign, which in part turned out to be true.
"In 2016 Donald J. Trump told the American people that the government was spying on him. The media said that he was paranoid. The Obama administration and the Democrats said that this was an absolute lie and that Donald Trump was not fit to be president, only for us to find out later that the U.S. government did spy on Donald Trump, and what he had said was in fact true," Graham wrote.
An FBI counterintelligence operation, codenamed "Crossfire Hurricane", was undertaken by the FBI between July 31, 2016 and May 17, 2017 to investigate suspected links between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government.
Following this operation, the investigation was taken over by Special Counsel investigation of 2017–2019, led by Robert Mueller.
"We spent the next two years with the President under investigation for collusion with the Russians. The President said there was no collusion, but night after night, the media and the Democrats said there was collusion. After an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it turned out to be false—there was no collusion," Graham explained. "President Trump was right again."
Graham insisted that Trump has been "maligned, falsely accused, and attacked on every front since before the election in 2016", adding that "when President Trump says that this election has been rigged or stolen, I tend to believe him".
Franklin concluded that Trump "has a track record of being right".
"Pray for President Trump, pray for Joe Biden, and pray for our nation," he added. "That we will get through this, and for God’s will be done."
On Sunday, lawyers representing Trump re-election campaign filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking for the justices to effectively reverse the outcome of the race. The challenge is expected to be denied. Several other attempts by Trump's lawyers to enlist the Supreme Court's help in a bid to have the election overturned have failed.