republican leader Supporters of Donald Trump continue to refuse to make clear that they will accept the results of the November election, regardless of who wins.
The person who most likely raised doubts about the results was House Speaker Mike Johnson during an appearance on ABC on Sunday. this week With George Stephanopoulos. “Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and Donald Trump won,” Stephanopoulos said, noting that Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, refused to answer during the vice presidential debate with Gov. Tim Walz. “Can you clearly state that was defeated?” he asked.
Johnson refused to answer the question and instead denounced it as a “game of catch.”
“When we talk about the future, you want us to litigate something that happened four years ago,” he said. “We’re not going to talk about what happened in 2020. “We’re going to talk about 2024 and how we’re going to solve the problems of the American people.”
When Stephanopoulos gave Johnson some of Trump’s recent comments and asked him if he believed, as Trump did, that “the only way Donald Trump is going to lose is if the Democrats cheat,” Johnson didn’t respond, but said: “Donald Trump will win,” he said. (Trump still has not explicitly acknowledged his loss and has claimed Democrats are “scams as hell.” His campaign has filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results, but all have been dismissed as without merit.)
Here’s Johnson’s torturous response at another point in the interview: almost It seemed like reality had been acknowledged. For example, at one point he said, “Joe Biden has been president for almost four years. “Everyone needs to overcome this and move forward.” But he hasn’t said publicly and clearly that Donald Trump lost in 2020. (The fact that Johnson referred to Trump’s “massive” crowd three times in the interview seems to suggest that he believed the former president would be watching or otherwise viewing the interview.)
The former president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, made similar remarks during an appearance on CNN on Sunday. state of union.
“Is there a situation where Donald Trump would accept defeat and concede?” asked CNN host Dana Bash.
“Of course,” Lara Trump responded, emphasizing the mood rather than the actual votes counted, adding, “If he feels that this is a free, fair and transparent election, that is my number one goal at the RNC.”
She went on to lament that she believes Americans have “lost trust” in their electoral system. She and other Trump followers continued to undermine it. “After 2020, there were a lot of people across this country who felt they couldn’t trust the system,” she said. (It may have had something to do with her father-in-law and his GOP allies systematically inciting the insurrection.)
Bash reminded viewers that there was “no evidence of large-scale fraud” in 2020.
As Donald Trump and his top allies continue to sow false doubts about the US election, the former president recently said this will be his last campaign whether he wins or loses. But as President Joe Biden just suggested, Trump’s message could mean this incident may not end peacefully either.
