FACT CHECK: Did Donald Trump Say, ‘If You Elect Joe Biden, I Will Go To Prison’?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

A viral Facebook post shared over 6,200 times claims President Donald Trump said, “If you elect Joe Biden, I will go to prison.”

Verdict: False

There is no record of Trump ever saying the quote.

Fact Check:

Trump is a frequent subject of having quotes falsely attributed to him. This particular Facebook post credits the president on Aug. 12 with saying, “If you elect Joe Biden, I will go to prison.”

But there is no record of Trump making the remark. Had he admitted such a thing, media outlets would have assuredly reported on it, yet none have. A search of Trump’s verified Twitter accounts – @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS – turned up no instances of the comment. It does not appear in ProPublica’s archive of the president’s deleted tweets.

Check Your Fact also didn’t find the quote in Factbase, an online database that collects Trump’s public statements, or the transcripts from his public remarks on Aug. 12, the day he allegedly made the comment. (RELATED: Image Claims To Show Donald Trump Disparaging Kamala Harris’ Name In A Tweet)

The misattributed quote appears to come from an Aug. 2 tweet that quotes him as saying it without any evidence. Trump held a virtual Pennsylvania tele-rally that day, but did not make any mention of going to prison if Biden was elected, according to a transcript from the event. In the comments of the Aug. 2 tweet, the Twitter user clarified that it was “satire.”

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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