ASP CEO Nina Jankowicz Statement on the 2024 Election Results

WASHINGTON, DC - “Votes are still being counted, but the result of the 2024 election is clear: Donald Trump will return to the White House in January. Election officials and poll workers across the country have protected the sacred right of Americans to choose representatives in a process that was safe and secure, despite election interference and influence efforts from America’s adversaries. Unlike others in past election cycles, we respect the process and the result.

“Disinformation is a complex challenge for the United States, but former President Trump’s victory cannot be attributed directly to it. Just as Russian disinformation is most successful when it weaponizes pre-existing fissures and grievances to undermine us, it is clear the Trump campaign’s messages, which are responsive to deeply-held grievances, appeal to a significant number of Americans, even if untrue. The normalization of pervasive, pernicious, and deliberate lies — and Americans’ indifference to them — got us here.

“We at The American Sunlight Project have been clear about the implications of a second Trump term. We are opposed to attempts by former President Trump and his affiliates to silence truth tellers working in the public interest, including academic researchers and journalists. We find repugnant the gendered and racist rhetoric that his campaign has embraced. And we will continue to work against these threats during the next four years.

“The American Sunlight Project will continue its open-source, public interest research to expose deceptive information practices at home and abroad. We will fight for the rights of women and marginalized communities to express themselves without fear, online and off. And we will work toward building an electorate that has the tools it needs to navigate an increasingly complex and polluted information environment, no matter which party it supports.

“As I have told Congress every time I have testified, at the invitation of both Republicans and Democrats: disinformation is not a partisan issue. Its ultimate victim is democracy. We at American Sunlight are committed to resisting its assault.”