Donald Trump, when asked during Tuesday’s presidential debate about admitting that he lost “by a whisker” against President Joe Biden four years ago, claimed he was being “sarcastic,” and continued to repeat bogus claims about voting fraud and insist he won.
About halfway through the debate, ABC anchor David Muir sought clarification from Trump in light of his statement last month that his re-election bid in 2020 came up “just a little bit short”—a comment that some MAGA followers griped about.
“For three-and-a-half years after you lost the 2020 election, you repeatedly, falsely claimed that you won—many times saying that you won in a landslide. In the past couple weeks leading up to this debate, you have said you ‘lost by a whisker,’ that you ‘didn’t quite make it,’ that you came up ‘a little bit short,’” Muir began.
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“I said that?” Trump questioned, to which Muir continued: “Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?’
“No, no,” Trump replied immediately. “I don’t acknowledge that at all. I said that sarcastically. You know that.”
Trump then regurgitated his usual falsehoods about the election he lost.
“There is so much proof. All you have to do is look at it, and they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval. I got almost 75 million votes—the most votes any sitting president has ever gotten,” Trump said.. “I was told that if I got 63 [million], which is what I got in 2016, you can’t be beaten.”
Once Trump finished his answer, Muir said he “didn’t detect the sarcasm,” and also pointed out that courts tossed out dozens of Trump-backed lawsuits after the election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, after being asked about Trump’s refusal to accept the results and his threatening to prosecute his political opponents, responded with a jab.
“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” she said, turning to look at him. Trump smirked.
“Clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that. But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts—as he did in the past—to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election,” Harris added.
“I have traveled the world as vice president of the United States, and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you,” she continued, turning to look at him again, something Trump did rarely—if ever— during the 100-plus minute debate. “And they say you are a disgrace.”
Harris added that Trump’s continued denial of reality is unpresidential.
“It leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have, in the candidate to my right, the temperament or the ability to not be confused about fact,” she said. “That’s deeply troubling, and the American people deserve better.”
