Donald Trump claimed he “won” the 2020 presidential election during a rally in Michigan on Thursday, a day after a lengthy legal filing from special counsel Jack Smith was made public detailing the election fraud case against the former president.
While encouraging the crowd in the key battleground state to “turn out and vote in record numbers,” Trump reiterated previous false claims about the last election. “You know last time, last election, we did great in 2016 a lot of people don’t know we did much better in 2020,” he said. “We won, we won, we did win. It was a rigged election, it was a rigged election.”
Following his election loss to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump repeatedly claimed that his Democratic opponent had only won through massive fraud. These claims led to the January 6 Capitol riot. No credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election has been found. Biden won Michigan by a narrow 2.78 percentage-point margin.
At the rally, Trump continued, “You have to tell Kamala Harris, that’s why I’m doing it again, if I thought I lost, I wouldn’t be doing this again. You know where I’d be right now, on the beaches of Monte Carlo maybe, or some place. Be having a nice life.”
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Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek in an email that, “President Trump got more votes than any other sitting president in history, and cheating Democrats used the pandemic to change state laws in the middle of an election to cheat.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many states changed voting procedures for the 2020 election, such as expanding mail-in voting and extending deadlines for postal votes to arrive and be counted. These changes were made to ensure voter safety and accommodate public health concerns. However, these adjustments were legal and implemented by state legislatures or election officials. Courts reviewed several challenges and numerous audits confirmed the election’s integrity.
Trump’s latest claims about the 2020 election come after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed the 165-page filing against the former president in his election fraud case, marking the first time the public has seen Special Council Jack Smith’s full argument.
The filing includes multiple allegations. Trump allegedly pleaded with then-Vice President Mike Pence for him to not certify the election for Joe Biden. Trump was “incensed,” when Pence refused, and later on January 6 when rioters broke into the Capitol, chanting threats about Pence, Trump was unconcerned for Pence’s safety. It also alleges that a Trump campaign staffer texted a Trump operative to encourage rioting and that Trump told his family, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.” These alleged remarks were made while Trump was travelling with his family on the presidential helicopter, to his wife, then-first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. An unnamed White House official who was present on the flight is willing to testify to the remarks.
During the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz asked Vance, “Did he [Trump] lose the 2020 election?”
Vance responded, “Tim, I’m focused on the future,” before pivoting. Walz dubbed this a “damning non-answer,” and said, “He lost the election. This is not a debate.”
Speaking at a rally in Wisconsin yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the claims made by Trump and said that he “Violated the oath to uphold the Constitution.”
She said that Trump, “If given the chance, will violate it again. Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. And he refused to accept the will of the people and the results of an election that was free and fair.”
“He sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. Threatened the life of his own vice president. And refused to engage in the peaceful transfer of power.”
“Kamala Harris is a disgrace and she is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal,” Cheung said. “She will lose because voters are sick and tired of her disastrous policies that have led to sky rocketing inflation, an out-of-control border, and rampant crime terrorizing our communities.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Harris campaign outside of normal working hours for comment.
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