Trump Pushes Back On CNN Host’s Election Assertions

Former President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday during a CNN town hall that only the least bright of individuals would come to the conclusion that there was no rigging in the 2020 presidential election.

Host Kaitlan Collins began, “Polls show that you are dominating the Republican race right now, but you are also under active federal investigation for trying to overturn the 2020 election results,” she said. “Your first term ended with a deadly riot at the Capitol, and you still have not publicly acknowledged the 2020 election result. Why should Americans put you back in the White House?”

“Because we did fantastically,” answered Trump, who then correctly pointed out that he received 12 million more votes in the 2020 election than in 2016, amounting to the most votes ever cast for a sitting United States President. 

“I think that when you look at that result and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happens,” the former president proclaimed. “A lot of the people–a lot of the people in this audience and probably maybe a couple that don’t, but most people understand what happened. That was a rigged election, and it’s a shame we had to go through it. It’s bad for our country all over the world, they looked at it and they saw exactly what everyone else saw. Even if you look recently with the 51 intelligence agents that made a difference. If you look at the FBI and Twitter, call it Twitter files, it made a big difference.”

Collins replied, “Mr. President back to what you just said there, though. It was not a rigged election. It was not a stolen election. You and your supporters lost more than 60 court cases on the election. It’s been nearly two and a half years. Can you publicly acknowledge that you did lose the 2020 election?”

“Let me just go on,” Trump shot back. If you look at True the Vote, they found millions of votes on camera, on government cameras where they were stuffing ballot boxes. So with all of that, I think it’s a shame what happened. I think it’s a very sad thing for our country. I think it’s a very sad thing frankly for the world.”

Even some actors in the mainstream media have acknowledged just how easily things could have gone another way. As Domenico Montanaro of National Public Radio puts it, “just 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College.”