Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump made the head-spinning claim Thursday that it’s “obvious” her father-in-law does accept election results, despite his persistent false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
On Newsmax, the former president’s daughter-in-law was asked about Democratic leaders like President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton each warning that the most recent Republican president may not respect the outcome of the vote. Trump dismissed those concerns.
“It’s pretty obvious that Donald Trump does accept election results, even despite the fact that it was a very questionable election in 2020, because Joe Biden is unfortunately sitting in the Oval Office today,” she argued.
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Lara Trump then whitewashed the former president’s rampant election denialism, which has become a litmus test of sorts for his pool of potential running mates.
“What Donald Trump has said, and I think is exactly right, is that we should have free, fair and transparent elections,” she told host Eric Bolling, before pointing to Americans’ feelings about voting as some sort of evidence to bolster the former president’s case.
“And unfortunately, Eric, there are millions and millions of Americans out there who don’t feel like they can trust our electoral process. We can’t function as a country like that,” she said.
Polls have consistently shown that a majority of GOP voters don’t think Biden’s election win was legitimate. A CNN survey from last July, for instance, showed 69 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believing the indicted former president’s false claims.
On Newsmax, Lara Trump offered a description of what her father-in-law has said about the upcoming election—replete with caveats.
“So he said, ‘Yes, if I feel like this is a fair election, if I feel like you guys didn’t interfere in any way like they are obviously trying to do with all these bogus cases against him, then no problem. I’m happy to accept the results of the election,’” she said.
“The truth is, if there’s no election interference, if everything is fair, and there’s nothing nefarious happening in an election, it is pretty clear based on all the polls out there and anybody you talk to, Donald Trump will be the 47th president,” Trump continued.
Donald Trump, of course, not only made bogus claims of fraud regarding the election he lost in 2020, but the one prior to that, which he won.
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” he falsely said in 2016.
That wasn’t the only time Trump baselessly alleged fraud that year. After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) won the Iowa caucus, Trump falsely claimed Cruz “illegally stole it” and demanded a re-do.
Going back even further, Trump also called the 2012 election a “total sham.”
