Former President Donald Trump returned to his stolen election claims during Tuesday night’s presidential debate despite his recent statements that he lost the 2020 election “by a whisker.”
In the weeks leading up to the first and likely only matchup against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump conceded he lost against President Joe Biden, but he denied his remarks were a reversal in Philadelphia.
“I would say it sarcastically. There’s so much proof,” Trump responded. “All you have to do is look at it, and they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval.”
Last month, Trump said during a conversation with the conservative Moms for Liberty group that he lost in 2020 “by a whisker.” He made a similar statement last week to podcaster Lex Fridman.
The remarks have amounted to his most direct acceptances of defeat despite years of unsubstantiated claims he lost due to widespread voter fraud and Democratic cheating.
Trump and his allies in the wake of the 2020 election lost dozens of court cases throughout the country as part of their effort to challenge the results. He blamed those outcomes on biased judges, some of whom he appointed.
“They said we didn’t have standing — a technicality,” Trump said at the debate. “Can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn’t have standing? The president of the United States doesn’t have standing?”
Trump’s statement that he lost “by a whisker” has prompted backlash from some supporters who argued such comments undermined their 2020 efforts to overturn the results.
“So, why did we do ‘Stop the Steal’? Why did anyone go to Jan. 6? Why did anyone go to jail?” hard-right political commentator Nick Fuentes, who participated in the U.S. Capitol attack, recently said on his podcast. “It would have been good to know that before 1,600 people got charged. It would’ve been good to know that before I had all my money frozen, put on a no-fly list, banned from everything, [and] lost all my bank and payment processing.”
Still, Trump has continued to claim Democrats are actively plotting to steal the November election and sought to sow doubt in the integrity of the results. He recently went so far as to threaten the prosecution of election officials, which GOP allies have chalked up to tough rhetoric advocating the upholding of voting laws.
At the debate, Trump appeared to claim, without evidence, that illegal immigration was responsible for widespread voter fraud.
“A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, [Democrats are] trying to get them to vote,” he said. “They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in, practically, and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”
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