In a new discussion with an institution at Georgetown University, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) pointed to Republicans as the real culprits for major election-corrupting behavior that really was seen in 2020. That description is, of course, at odds with the somehow continuing assertions from former President Donald Trump and others that there was widespread fraud that boosted Joe Biden’s candidacy.
“It’s like, are we going to abandon truth to that degree? I mean it’s absolutely absurd,” Romney said, discussing the still large portion of Republicans who say that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election. “I mean, after all this time, all the courts that were solicited to look into it — there’s been no evidence of widespread fraud. Most of the evidence I’ve seen so far has been Republicans trying to corrupt the election.”
There are some easy examples of the apparent evidence to which Romney is pointing in the multiple criminal cases that have been filed against Trump and others accusing a slew of defendants of various forms of attempted election meddling nationally and in individual states.
And there are serious cases that don’t directly implicate Trump but remain ongoing alongside the more high-profile matters, like a criminal case in Michigan accusing a group including Trump’s pick for attorney general in the state’s 2022 elections of covertly assembling election equipment with the aim of taking ostensibly useful data. In what sounds just absurd, individuals charged in the case were accused of involvement in illegally taking possession of electronic vote tabulators and assembling the equipment in a hotel room as individuals in Michigan and other states tried to gin up data that would support fraud claims.
Meanwhile, the federal case accusing Trump of serious election interference recently saw the judge issue a gag order blocking the former president from making public attacks on figures like Special Counsel Jack Smith and that federal prosecutor’s staff. There’s already a substantial record of Trump’s highly personalized, antagonistic rhetoric spurring threats and real-world violence against many different opponents of his.
Watch Romney’s remarks below, as highlighted from the longer discussion by the group Republican Accountability:
.@MittRomney: “I think approximately 70% of Republicans still say that Donald Trump won…Are we going to abandon truth to that degree? It’s absolutely absurd…Most of the evidence I’ve seen so far has been Republicans trying to corrupt the election.” pic.twitter.com/zmS6T3QjOd
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) October 18, 2023
