As the 2024 election nears, Trump and Republicans are fixated on immigration. As a top election issue, Fox News has been spreading “replacement” conspiracy theory rhetoric more than ever. The network has expanded its talking points from claiming that Democrats are allowing in migrants in exchange for votes in federal elections to claiming that Democrats are allowing in migrants to affect the census and consequently the House of Representatives and Electoral College votes in their favor. 

• On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity said “Democrats” will eventually try to “offer amnesty” to those living in the country without authorization in exchange for votes. “Now amnesty is something of great worth and great value,” Hannity said. “Democrats will be saying to the people that they help break the law with and the people that are offered something of great value to, ‘What, you’re not going to vote for those guys, are you? Because they’re the ones that didn’t want you to come into the country illegally and they’re not the ones voting to make you citizens and give you amnesty and apply for citizenship.’” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 1/9/24]

• Later, on his Fox prime-time show, Hannity mused about whether Democrats were “holding out, you know, the carrot of free citizenship” to migrants. Hannity said President Joe Biden was “not even pretending to care about the border” before asking, “What would the Democrats want in exchange for assistance in helping people break our laws, not respect our borders, our sovereignty, and maybe holding out, you know, the carrot of free citizenship?” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/9/24] 

• The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro: “How many do you need to come into the United States to vote Democrat because they all love Joe Biden?” Pirro continued: “In New York City, they want illegals to vote. And you give them a license, it’s a point of identification that they can then start applying to vote.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/30/24] 

• When co-host Jessica Tarlov attempted to dispel Pirro’s replacement theory rhetoric, co-host Greg Gutfeld backed Pirro, claiming that Dems have admitted to the conspiracy theory: “Democrats have said that. And they've never used the phrase ‘replacement theory,’ but they talk about bringing in new voters and turning Texas from red to purple to blue. So it’s not like a racist thing to say.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/30/24] 

• Hoover Institute senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson claimed that Biden and other Democrats “felt that open borders gave them new constituencies.” “They called anybody racist or xenophobic who wanted a secure border,” Hanson continued. “They said, ‘Oh, you believe in the great replacement theory,’ even, Sean, as they were writing books called, The New Democratic Majority, or Demography is Destiny.” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/7/24]

• On his radio show, Fox News host Mark Levin said the “Democrat Party” wants to “change the citizenry as a whole, literally, through open borders and the migration of not just millions but tens of millions of foreigners.” “All of whom come here illegally, over the border, that’s what I’m talking about — not those who go through the process,” he continued. “And all of whom will thank the Democrat Party and Joe Biden.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 2/29/24]

• Failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said it’s not a conspiracy theory but a “conspiracy reality” that Democrats are importing voters to secure a “long-run, lasting electoral majorities.” After Ramaswamy claimed that border security and election integrity are “intimately linked,” host Laura Ingraham interjected, “Do you think illegals are going to be voting in this next election?” He replied, “I think inevitably there's going to be a lot of seepage, and I think that it’s also a long-run play.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/7/24]

• After listing extreme instances of migrants committing violent crimes, Fox News anchor Julie Banderas said, “These are the people that the Biden administration is inviting into our country in order to join the census and eventually vote for Democrats like Biden to get back into office.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 3/18/24] 

• Fox contributor Ari Fleischer: Biden's immigration policy is “part of a political endgame for the Democrats to hold power.” “This is a crisis of his [Biden’s] creation, of his own wanting, because the end game for the Democrats, Sean, is to let people come in illegally, get them work papers, which leads to green cards, which leads to voting,” Fleischer reiterated. [Fox News, Hannity, 4/1/24] 

• Fox host Jesse Watters accused Democrats of lying about the border and migrants committing crimes, warning, “Remember, they also say they won't be able to vote.” “They said the border wasn’t open. They said they wouldn’t take our jobs. They said they aren’t committing crimes. And now they say they’re not bringing drugs. All of those things were lies,” Watters said. “And remember, they also say they won’t be able to vote.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/4/24]

• Hannity suggested that Democrats want to create a “path to citizenship” for migrants in exchange for votes. “What we're talking about here is a plan to ultimately provide a path to citizenship,” Hannity said. “But if they become the party that offers this, the most highly coveted passport that the world can offer and they give it away free — ‘Well, I hope you'll vote for us after we gave you that.’” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/12/24] 

• Pirro praised Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s voter suppression effort, claiming, “Even though there is a law that says you can't vote if you're illegal, the truth is — New York City, a couple months ago, wants 800,000 illegals to vote in the next election.” She added: “So, this is a war.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/12/24]

• Conservative radio host Ben Ferguson claimed the Democratic Party — which he described as “Marxist, socialist, and communist combined” — understands that “if you bankrupt a country and you bring in new voters” by “the millions” you can “fundamentally change the United States of America in one generation.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 4/16/24]

Donald Trump has been indicted in four separate criminal cases. Two of the cases are led by local prosecutors and the two federal cases are led by special counsels, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Fox News has been vigorously peddling claims that Trump’s legal woes are part of a Democratic plot to hurt the former president’s reelection chances, with some personalities and guests calling the cases “election interference.” 

• Laura Ingraham suggested that Trump’s legal troubles were the result of partisan prosecutors “interfering with the election” by giving voters a choice “between a demented incumbent and a convicted felon.” Ingraham was responding to a clip in which CNN legal analyst and ethics expert Norm Eisen detailed how Trump’s public polling numbers would crater if he were convicted of a crime. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/9/24]

• Jeanine Pirro claimed that New York state’s civil fraud trial against Trump was a “joke” that amounted to “election interference.” She said, “Look, this case has been a joke from the beginning. It has been an effort on the part of the political attorney general to take down Donald Trump, to keep him not just from the calendar as it relates to the caucuses and the primaries, but to keep him from doing any business in this state. And it's called election interference.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/11/24]

• Jesse Watters suggested that both New York state Attorney General Letitia James and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis were in a “conspiracy with Biden” because they visited the White House while prosecuting Trump: “It’s almost as if Biden’s running the Trump prosecutions from the White House.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/11/24]

• American First Legal president and former Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed Democrats are using “lawfare” to win the election: “It is the ultimate election interference.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/18/24]

• Republican National Committee co-chair and former Fox contributor Lara Trump stated that the cases against Trump have been “election interference since the very beginning.” Trump added, “These people are using the least democratic means possible to try and rig an election.” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/5/24]

• Greg Gutfeld dismissed the January 6 insurrection as a “hoax” and characterized states’ attempts to remove Trump from their ballots for inciting an insurrection in violation of the 14th Amendment as “election interference.” “It’s interesting to see a party that claims to be protecting democracy trying so hard to get the opposition off the ballot, so democracy is thwarted,” Gutfeld said. “If you want election interference, you got it. It’s right there.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/8/24]

• Trump’s legal spokesperson Alina Habba claimed that the Fulton County district attorney’s case against Trump was “motivated by one thing and one thing only, and that’s election interference, that's trying to bring Trump down.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 3/13/24]

• Host Harris Faulkner on Trump’s hush money case: “When you look at just the whole scope of what this really means, this actually might be election interference.” Faulkner went on, “When you start to have people who will press against a candidate and run with their name in their mouths, that’s got to taint some voters. No one wants to speak up about that?” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 3/25/24]

• Fox News contributor Leo Terrell on Trump hush money trial: “This case is a political trial designed to hurt Trump's chances in November.” “President Trump is being prosecuted because he’s running for office,” Terrell added. [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 4/4/24] 

• Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said the Trump indictments were “classic lawfare” and “driven by political animus,” representing “a partisan attempt to interfere in a presidential election.” “I think what Biden Democrats and the media underestimate is the intelligence of American voters,” Jarrett continued. “They see these dirty legal tricks for exactly what they are — a pernicious attempt to steal an election through an abuse of our system of justice.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/12/24]

• Habba on Trump’s hush money trial: “This is political — it's election interference.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/15/24]

• Sean Hannity called Trump’s hush money trial “a blatant political smear campaign.” “This is not a legitimate trial,” he said. “It is a perfectly timed political scheme led by a prosecutor who did campaign on quote ‘getting Trump.’” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/15/24]

• Ben Ferguson lamented that “Joe Biden is in Pennsylvania raising money right now while they’ve tied up Donald Trump in court yet again,” adding, “That is election interference." “To your point, Ben, about election interference,” Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said. “They’re trying to put Donald Trump at the same speed as Joe Biden, right? They want to tie him up in court. They want to make sure he, you know, he can’t do rallies until 9 o’clock at night because he’s got to be in court all day. They’re trying to demoralize him by saying you can’t go to your child’s graduation, treating him like he’s, you know, a criminal.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 4/16/24]

• Jarrett accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan of “essentially colluding to keep Trump off the campaign trail, tied up in court to damage his election chances.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/16/24]

• In the same segment, Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz declared, “We have a right not to have that election interference." “We have the right to decide who to vote for without the thumb, or in this case, the elbow of the criminal justice system led by Democrats, in this case the district attorney who campaigned on a promise to get Trump, essentially. We have a right not to have that election interference." [Fox News, Hannity, 4/16/24]

• Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones: “I think when the former president says that it’s election interference, I think there’s some credibility there and there’s a point there.” He added: “Why are they staging all these trials to where he cannot campaign in another state when Joe Biden gets to be in Pennsylvania?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/17/24]

• Watters suggested that the indictments against Trump amount to “rigging the election.” “Brilliant move by Democrats. You’re indicting this guy so many times, and then he can’t talk about how unfair it is?” Watters said. “You’re rigging the election and he [Trump] says, ‘You’re rigging the election,’ and then he gets thrown in jail for saying, ‘You're rigging this election.’ This is probably the best campaign strategy the Democrats have ever come up with.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/19/24]

• Miller: “Every resource is being directed not to protect Jews, not to protect students, not to protect Americans, not to fight crime … they are using their resources to try to put one man behind bars, the ultimate election interference.” “This president is a lawless offense to democracy and civilization,” he continued. “Everything coming out of this White House is destroying the very fabric of this country and our democracy, because of Joe Biden, is indeed in grave peril, Sean.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/23/24]

The 2020 election was not rigged. According to Trump’s own election officials, the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history."

• While arguing that Trump had “every right” to try to overturn the 2020 election results, Jesse Watters described the 2020 election as “an unprecedented mail-in ballot election, where rules were loosened on the fly and where the CIA, FBI, and Big Tech colluded and deceived the American voter.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/9/24]

• During Fox’s election coverage of the Iowa caucuses, anchor Sandra Smith repeatedly failed to fact-check a poll result showing two-thirds of Iowa Republicans think Biden was not “legitimately elected.” [Media Matters, 1/16/24]

• Watters: “The FBI and Facebook suppressed the vote the last election.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/31/24]

• In a segment questioning the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Watters said that “the CIA and FBI interfered in the last two elections.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/9/24]

Despite claims from Trump and his propaganda network that early and mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes are not secure and invite election fraud, there is no evidence that these methods encourage widespread fraud that affects election results. 

• Sean Hannity said early voting and mail-in voting isn't “the system that has the most integrity, that would give us the most confidence in results.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/2/24]

• Hannity told his audience not to expect results from the Iowa Democratic caucuses for months. “Don't expect any numbers from Democrats,” he said. “With a very complicated mail-in voting system and the reshuffling of the Democratic Party's primary calendar, we won’t get an official tally for months." [Fox News, Hannity, 1/8/24]

• In a segment attacking blue states for supposedly “passing big overhauls of their voting laws,” Laura Ingraham asked American Majority founder and CEO Ned Ryun, “Even if Trump wins the nomination by a landslide, does it matter if these mail-in ballot drop box issues are not countered by the Republicans?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/22/24]

• Jesse Watters: “Mail-ins are here to stay. It’s written in the law. Democrats have embraced it — they’ll abuse it to win.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/16/24]

• Watters claimed that Democrats had a “head start” due to early voting. He said: “Election Day doesn’t matter any more. In some swing states, you can start voting in September and October. A two-month head start. … It’s just a numbers game and Democrats know how to ‘add to the equation.’” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/20/24]

Over and over again, election fraud has been proved to be rare and negligible in influencing election results, with occasional exceptions in local races. In 2021, The Associated Press conducted a review of every potential instance of 2020 voter fraud in the six swing states targeted by Trump and found fewer than 475 cases. In those swing states, Biden won by more than 300,000 combined votes.

• Jesse Watters spent a segment highlighting voter fraud in Bridgeport, Connecticut, saying that it’s “not looking so good” for 2024. He warned: “We told election officials across the country they have to get it together by ‘24 if they want a safe and secure election. And so far, if you look at Bridgeport, not looking so good.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/24/24]

• Watters expressed skepticism over a glitch in Nevada’s ballot counting software. He said: “I don't trust people who are constantly telling me to trust them. We’re just supposed to trust that no one voted in our name?” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/20/24]

Fox personalities have repeatedly demonized federal get-out-the-vote efforts and voter registration efforts, spreading the false claim that Democrats are using taxpayer money to bribe voters. 

• Lara Trump: Democrats are “paying liberal students to register more liberal students with taxpayer money.” She added: “Imagine if Donald Trump, while president, impacted an election and influenced voters with taxpayer money.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/28/24]

• Jesse Watters proclaimed that the Biden administration is “bribing college kids with taxpayer money to become poll workers and election activists.” Watters continued, “First, Democrats weaponized mail-in ballots to secure election wins while the Republican party lagged, and now they’re turning the federal government into a taxpayer-funded arm of the Biden/Harris campaign.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/28/24]

• Laura Ingraham argued that government-funded get-out-the-vote organizations are actually partisan Democratic groups, questioning “how Democrats keep winning, right, when their policies are just awful.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 4/11/24]

• Watters insisted that Democrats are “targeting people who interact with the federal government, people who are depending on government assistance” including “families that get food stamps, families in the free lunch program, families that get free health care” and “homeless people” to register to vote. He continued, “Is this a demographic that you'd consider traditionally Republican? I don't know, maybe.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 5/8/24]

Fox News claimed outright that Democrats are interfering with or will cheat or try to cheat in the 2024 election, attempting to support their claims with absurd arguments and zero evidence. 

• Jesse Watters claimed the CIA has “been interfering in our elections for years” and will use diversity, equity, and inclusion to “subvert the Republican nominee” in the 2024 presidential election. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/2/24]

• Greg Gutfeld falsely claimed that “murder victims will come back to life just in time to vote” in the 2024 presidential election as the media supposedly attempt to “lift Joe Biden’s sagging campaign.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/2/24]

• Fox contributor Lisa Boothe accused Democrats of using COVID-19 “to upend the election” and getting “former intel officers to lie to the American people” in the 2020 election, warning, “They’re going to try to win doing anything they can.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/4/24]

• Laura Ingraham predicted Democrats will “game the system or yeah, maybe even cheat” in the 2024 election. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/16/24]

• Fox News contributor Tyrus Murdoch predicted that if Trump wins the 2024 presidential elections, Democrats will “have the military in place to arrest him for treason.” He continued, “He didn't do anything with January 6, wasn't convicted or anything, but yet they have courts taking him off the ballot.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/17/24]

• Anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to outline her efforts to prevent voter fraud in 2024 “in the face of potential criminality” by Democrats. [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 1/28/24]

• Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) predicted that Democrats will use a crisis like COVID-19 to rewrite election rules and “run their elections however they want to” to ensure that Biden is reelected in 2024. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/8/24] 

• Article III Project founder and possible Trump attorney general pick Mike Davis instructed states and Republican lawyers to “start filing lawsuits and getting injunctions right now on voter ID, on signature verification, on all-mail ballots, on election observers, so we don't have the election rigged again like it was in 2020.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/4/24]

• Watters reported that a whistleblower had accused the CIA of “witness tampering” in the Hunter Biden investigation to “help President Biden win reelection.” He also claimed the CIA has a “long history of protecting the Bidens and injuring Trump.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/25/24]

• Ingraham insisted that Democrats who are “urging Biden not to debate Trump” are committing election interference. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 4/16/24]

• Hannity argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland is “interfering in the election” because he chose not to hand over the Robert Hur interview tapes: “So the reason they don't want the American people to hear the tapes is because they know that those tapes will be devastating to Joe Biden, likely causing him a chance at reelection.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/17/24]