Trump Proves Yet Again That Hes a Moron

Video by Renee Klahr, John Poole and Nick Michael | NPR / YouTube

Some Republican leaders are trying to move on from old President Donald Trump's failed attempt to overturn the 2020 ballot that he lost.

"While there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would accept inverse the vote outcome in a unmarried country," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said Sunday on ABC'due south This Week. "The election was off-white, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the ballot, as Republicans, for the presidency. And if we simply look back and tell our people don't vote because there's adulterous going on, so nosotros're going to put ourselves in a huge disadvantage."

But Trump — who has endorsed dozens of candidates for the 2022 midterm elections and still holds by far the widest influence within the GOP — is trying hard not to let them move on.

"No, I think it's an reward, because otherwise they're going to practice information technology again in '22 and '24, and Rounds is wrong on that. Totally wrong," Trump told NPR in an interview Tuesday, referring to his false and debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

The interview was six years in the making. Trump and his team have repeatedly declined interviews with NPR until Tuesday, when he called in from his home in Florida. It was scheduled for 15 minutes, but lasted simply over nine.

After being pressed about his repeated lies almost the 2020 presidential election, Trump abruptly ended the interview.

Trump's mixed letters on getting vaccinated

The interview began with the pandemic and vaccinations.

Trump, whose administration oversaw the development of the COVID-xix vaccines, recommended that people go vaccinated but said he's firmly against mandating that they do so.

"[T]he mandate is really pain our country," Trump claimed, adding, "A lot of Americans aren't standing for it, and information technology's hurting our land."

He continued, "The vaccines, I recommend taking them, but I retrieve that has to exist an individual choice. I hateful, it's got to exist individual, simply I recommend taking them."

The opposition to mandates is popular with Republicans, and the Supreme Courtroom is currently weighing the Biden administration's vaccine-or-examination mandate for large employers. Just his comments come during the tape omicron surge, as the unvaccinated are far more likely to exist hospitalized or dice from the disease, and as Republicans are far more probable to be unvaccinated.

Epidemiologists and health experts warn that if more people don't become vaccinated and the virus continues to morph, it could prolong the pandemic — and delay any sense of getting back to normal.

The former president said he wants to run into therapeutics, used to treat the virus afterward someone is infected, produced and distributed more widely.

Trump's business firm grip on the Republican Party, merely tenuous grasp on reality

Trump is not just any one-time president.

Fifty-fifty many members of his own political party have blamed him for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 coup at the U.Due south. Capitol, only since then Trump has just tightened his grip on the GOP.

He remains 1 of the most pop figures in the Republican Political party and is considered the front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination, if he decides to run again.

When he ran in 2016, Trump was seen as having a shoestring entrada, fighting an uphill battle with few allies amongst Republican elected leaders.

Today, it'due south a different story. Trump'southward political organization has become a juggernaut. Not only are most Republican elected leaders falling in line, just he has also installed allies decision-making many levers of political power across the country. In land after state, Trump allies are running local Republican parties, serving equally state representatives and in accuse of political action committees.

Information technology'south a political army ready to be mobilized at his beck and call. What he says — what his message is to them — matters because they follow.

To secure his ability, he will do whatever he can to bandage aside those who don't show fealty. That includes threats, bullying and intimidation, similar badgering and name-calling.

Referring to Due south Dakota'southward Rounds in a statement after he appeared on ABC, for example, Trump said Rounds "just went woke," chosen him a "jerk," "weak," "ineffective" and questioned whether he was "crazy or just stupid."

He besides called him a RINO, an acronym for an insult some conservatives reserve for more moderate Republicans they disagree with — Republicans in name only.

In the interview with NPR, he partially blamed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for Rounds and other senators feeling as though they can speak out and say — correctly — that Trump lost the election.

"Because Mitch McConnell is a loser," Trump said.

Trump has called McConnell worse — and all considering the Kentucky Republican has crossed Trump, blaming him for the coup on Jan. 6 and saying President Biden won, fifty-fifty if McConnell doesn't practice so forcefully every twenty-four hour period.

It's par for the course for Trump, who has demanded unflinching loyalty — and who chafes at truths he disagrees with, peculiarly about him losing.

Trump has blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, all because the Kentucky Republican has crossed the former president. Bit Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Won't accept losing an ballot he lost

Many Republicans prefer to focus on Biden as this year'southward congressional elections approach. Trump is pressing candidates in a unlike direction.

Josh Mandel, a pro-Trump Republican from Ohio, launched his campaign for U.S. Senate just weeks later Trump supporters attacked the U.South. Capitol last yr.

"I think over time we're gonna meet studies come out that [show] testify of widespread fraud," Mandel, a quondam state treasurer who is angling for Trump's endorsement, told WKYC-Television.

In the year since Mandel made that prediction, the opposite has happened.

Even more evidence shows a free and fair election.

In one disputed state, Arizona, Trump allies held a widely criticized review of millions of ballots, merely even Doug Logan, who led Cyber Ninjas, the firm that ran the review, couldn't find much.

"The ballots that were provided to us to count in the Coliseum very accurately correlate with the official sheet numbers," Logan said.

As he does with any data or person he doesn't like or disagrees with, Trump dismissed the findings in the NPR interview.

"Lying or delusional"

In the interview, Trump repeated a number of false claims about voting systems in the U.Due south., including that the discredited GOP-led ballot review in Arizona showed bear witness of malfeasance — despite the fact that it also reaffirmed Biden'south victory.

Republican officials in Maricopa County, however, debunked the characterizations of Trump and his allies in a 93-page rebuttal issued terminal week.

"The people who have spent the last year proclaiming our gratis and off-white elections are rigged are lying or delusional," said Neb Gates, the GOP chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Asked why fifty-fifty Republicans in the state accustomed the findings, Trump reverted to an sometime attack.

"Because they're RINOs," he said, "and frankly, a lot of people are questioning that."

Tammy Patrick, a former Maricopa County election official and at present an elections adept at Democracy Fund, was presented past NPR with a number of Trump'due south claims about voting and noted that in the 14 months since the election, no proof of any of his claims has come to light.

"It hasn't been presented in whatsoever of the courts. It hasn't been surfaced in whatsoever official ballot audits, not by the Section of Justice, non by the FBI," Patrick said. "Allegations of fraud hinge upon being able to produce bodily instances of fraud — not merely thoughts, feelings or behavior near it."

To Republicans who know how elections work, the election has always been obvious.

"The facts show that it was President Biden who won fair and square," said Trey Grayson, who used to run elections as the Republican secretary of country in Kentucky. "Information technology wasn't rigged."

He's thinking virtually those Republican T-shirts that said, "F*** your feelings."

"And here we are looking at the 2020 election," Grayson said, "and we are the ones who are basing it on feelings, not on facts, not on the police."

The Pennsylvania example

Almost Republican voters now say they experience the election was stolen, according to surveys. That gives Trump leverage with Republican candidates who want to win primaries this year.

In Pennsylvania, numerous Republicans are running for governor and senator. They've made lots of moves to evidence their fealty to the one-time president. One candidate for governor is Bill McSwain, who happened to exist a U.South. chaser during the 2020 election.

Onetime U.S. Attorney Nib McSwain, a Republican running for Pennsylvania governor, has appealed for Trump'south support. Matt Rourke/AP hide explanation

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Matt Rourke/AP

"Neb McSwain left office without announcing whatever investigations or outcome of investigations for the 2020 election in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania," said Chris Brennan of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who has covered his story.

But then McSwain prepared to run for office. Last summer, he produced a letter for Trump, highly-seasoned for his support — and implying that he was blocked somehow from investigating unspecified claims of fraud.

"Merely it doesn't actually say that," Brennan said. "So even he, when yous carefully read it, does not claim that he was blocked from investigating fraud."

Trump still made the letter public and gave his own interpretation at multiple rallies.

"Nosotros have a U.South. chaser in Philadelphia that says he wasn't allowed to go and cheque," Trump said at a rally in Florida.

Grayson has watched similar stories unfold in multiple states.

"I think he's been really active in moving 2022 candidates toward his point of view," Grayson said. "The way I look at it is, I can't imagine that the party on its own would exist pushing this narrative if he weren't pushing it."

Repeatedly in the interview, Trump presses his party to attach to his bespeak of view and false claims, and he adapts his arguments to business relationship for more than and more proof that he lost. That's a typical strategy among purveyors of disinformation and misinformation.

Trump did correctly notation in the interview that he received more than votes than whatsoever sitting president ever. But his broader point that that is somehow prove that he won in 2020 is nonsensical, said Patrick, seeing as the ballot saw record turnout.

"Each ballot compares those candidates facing off in that election — it doesn't thing how the numbers compare to the final election," Patrick said. "Information technology doesn't matter how many points a team scored the last game or how many times Alabama has won the national title. What matters is who has the well-nigh points or votes at the cease of the game."

For the record, the Academy of Georgia won the college football game national championship Monday, defeating Alabama, 33-xviii. And Biden got 7 one thousand thousand more than votes than Trump in the popular vote in 2020 and got 306 electoral votes to Trump'south 232.

Repeated losses in the contained judiciary

Trump doesn't take a case of widespread fraud.

He and his lawyers tried to prove that he did — and they failed. Many judges, including some appointed by him, ruled that way in dozens of cases.

Here's a section of the interview on this:

NPR'S STEVE INSKEEP: Let me read you some short quotes. The showtime is by one of the judges, one of the x judges you appointed, who ruled on this. And in that location were many judges, but x who you appointed. Brett Ludwig, U.S. Commune Court in Wisconsin, who was nominated by you in 2020. He's on the bench and he says, quote, "This courtroom allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits."

Another quote, Kory Langhofer, your ain campaign attorney in Arizona, November. 12, 2020, quote, "We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. We are not alleging anyone stealing the election." And also Rudy Giuliani, your lawyer, November. 18, 2020, in Pennsylvania, quote, "This is not a fraud instance." Your ain lawyers had no prove of fraud. They said in court they had no evidence of fraud. And the judges ruled confronting you lot every fourth dimension on the merits.

TRUMP: It was too early to ask for fraud and to talk well-nigh fraud. Rudy said that, because of the fact it was very early on with the — considering that was manifestly at a very, very — that was a long time ago. The things that have establish out have more than bore out what people thought and what people felt and what people found.

When you look at Langhofer, I disagree with him as an attorney. I did not call up he was a expert attorney to hire. I don't know what his game is, but I volition just say this: You expect at the findings. You look at the number of votes. Become into Detroit and just ask yourself, is it true that in that location are more votes than there are voters? Look at Pennsylvania. Expect at Philadelphia. Is it true that in that location were far more votes than there were voters?

INSKEEP: It is not truthful that there were far more votes than voters. There was an early on count. I've noticed you've talked near this in rallies and you've said, reportedly, this is true. I think fifty-fifty you know that that was an early report that was corrected subsequently.

TRUMP: Well, you have a look at it. You take a look at Detroit. In fact, they even had a difficult fourth dimension getting people to sign off on it because it was so out of rest. They chosen it out of rest. So y'all take a look at it. Y'all know the real truth, Steve, and this ballot was a rigged election.

When pressed, information technology was alibi after excuse — it was "too early on" to claim fraud, his attorney was no good, things just seem suspicious.

But information technology all comes back to the same place: He has no evidence of widespread fraud that caused him to lose the election.

The tone of the interview changed. Trump then hurried off the telephone as he was starting to be asked about the attack on the Capitol, inspired by election lies.

A judge is because whether Trump can be held liable for his deportment in courtroom.

If he can be, then Trump or his lawyers would someday have to answer the questions he didn't reply before he cutting curt his chat with NPR.

Sound for this story was produced and edited past Taylor Haney, Lilly Quiroz, Amra Pasic and H.J. Mai.

luckyconswited.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072204478/donald-trump-npr-interview-presidential-election-lies-vaccines

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