Trump: Only ‘very stupid’ people think 2020 election fair

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said anyone who thinks the 2020 presidential election was fair is “very stupid,” once again reiterating his false claim that the last White House race was rigged even as he supplied no evidence to back up the accusation.

“When you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happened,” Trump said on a townhall event broadcast on CNN.

Trump later defended the men and women who attended a rally immediately before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying they had “love in their heart.”

Speaking of those prosecuted and jailed since the attack, the former president said he was “inclined to pardon many of them” should he win the 2024 election.

He also called a law enforcement official who shot one of the protesters at the Capitol a “thug.”

The attack on the Capitol in 2021 forced Congress to evacuate and temporarily halted the certification of the 2020 election.

Since leaving office, Trump has fixated unrelentingly on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, despite dozens of court cases that rejected all claims of an unfair election.

Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, said last year that the Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud.

“Most people understand what happened, it was a rigged election,” Trump said on CNN. “And it’s a shame we had to go through it.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2023 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Trump: Only ‘very stupid’ people think 2020 election fair."