Donald Trump There are many things: a bankrupt real estate developer who is rebranded as a business expert on television; a New York playboy found liable for sexual abuse; a law-and-order politician convicted of 34 crimes.
The one-term president knows the power of telling his own story and the dangers of letting others define him. So he hammers home his favorite story until it spreads from supporters who never question him to undecided voters who absorb it out of sheer repetition.
In these stories, Trump is always a winner who is beset by people trying to steal his victory away. And there is no fiction Trump loves more than the idea that he is always cheated at the ballot box during elections.
That was the treacherous undercurrent of his daughter-in-law, Lara TrumpTuesday to Pennsylvania with Michael Whatley, her co-chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Trump knows he has to take Pennsylvania voters into account
She and Whatley were conducting volunteer training on “election integrity” as part of a “Protect The Vote” tour of four swing states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
More than a hundred people were packed into a cramped room in an office park in suburban Newtown, an affluent Philadelphia suburb in purplish Bucks County, where President Joe Biden defeated Trump by 4.4 percentage points in 2020.
Lara Trump lamented her father-in-law’s loss of Pennsylvania and the presidency in 2020, while not directly repeating his lies that that election was “rigged” or “stolen.”
“I want to make sure that everyone in this country feels confident about voting, no matter who they are, whether you vote Republican, Democrat or third party, you should vote on Election Day. , voting by mail or early voting, knowing that your vote counts,” she said.
That would sound much more reasonable—commendable, even—if her father-in-law hadn’t spent nearly a decade attacking the election, big-city voters, and election administrators, all while simply not being able to accept the outcome.
GOP crows about voter fraud: Republicans whine about secure elections while cutting election security funding
A majority of people in the room rushed to leave after she spoke, and did not stick around for training for election observers and poll workers that the RNC said media members could not watch or listen to. Whatley said the RNC is looking for 100,000 volunteers, hoping for 5,000 in Pennsylvania.
Trump is still telling his 2020 election lies
Trump has been doubting the elections in Pennsylvania for eight years – without evidence. He started in August 2016, when polls showed him trailing Hillary Clinton in the state that year.
“We’re going to look at Pennsylvania,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Altoona that month. “Go to certain areas and look and study and make sure other people don’t come and vote five times. If you do that, we won’t lose. The only way we can lose in my opinion – I really mean that, Pennsylvania – is if the cheating continues.”
It was rare and remarkably irresponsible for a Republican candidate to become president. Trump being Trump, he kept saying it, even as Pennsylvania election officials — Republicans and Democrats — insisted that election fraud was a rare occurrence.
Trump’s misinformation about inflation: Trump Allies Attack Biden Over Inflation With An Old Cheesecake Factory Menu . No seriously.
Let’s take a moment to remember a time when it was rare for a politician to make baseless claims of election fraud just because his or her ego couldn’t resist the idea of defeat.
Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 but still railed about losing the popular vote across the country.
Trump has also attacked the voting process
Trump is so committed to lying about election fraud that he will continue to do it even if it becomes unstable. Speaking to conservative group Turning Point Action on Saturday, he again called the 2020 election “rigged” and lamented the use of mail-in ballots in places like Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
“Listen, we don’t need votes,” said Trump, who desperately needs votes to win in November. “We have to watch the vote. We have to watch the vote. We have to stop the stealing.”
Trump’s Strange Game for Black Voters: Why did the Trump campaign start reaching black voters in a white zip code in Philadelphia? They didn’t want to say that.
Trump also called mail-in ballots “treacherous” and “terrible” — uncomfortable messages as his daughter-in-law and Whatley spoke Tuesday about the RNC’s efforts to encourage the use of mail-in ballots.
Saturday’s comments came two days after Trump called Milwaukee a “terrible city” during a meeting with Republicans in Congress, which a campaign spokesperson later attributed to problems with crime and election issues there.
Trump will be officially nominated for president next month at the Republican National Convention … in Milwaukee. A way to win over locals in a critical swing state.
Trump doesn’t like the truth. That’s how you know it’s true.
Trump may become president for the second time in November. Or maybe he will lose an election for the second time. Regardless, there are no signs of impending election fraud.
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That won’t stop him from lying about our elections. We must continue to contradict reality, demand proof and point out when he cannot provide it.
Trump is running on the lies, hoping they will permeate the American conversation at every level so that potential voters who don’t pay attention to election news will hear his deception and perhaps fall for it.
The truth is the only antidote. You know it’s working when it infuriates Trump and his followers.
Follow USA TODAY election columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump tried to steal the 2020 election. Does he think we’ve forgotten?
