From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 7, 2023
DeSantis finally acknowledges Trump’s 2020 election defeat: ‘Of course he lost’
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Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says definitively that rival Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, an acknowledgment the Florida governor made after years of equivocating answers.
“Of course he lost,” DeSantis says an interview with NBC News posted today. “Joe Biden’s the president.”
DeSantis has often sidestepped questions about whether he believes the 2020 election results were legitimate. But in recent days he has started publicly questioning the lies that Trump and his allies have made about the election’s legitimacy.
Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general said there was no credible evidence the election’s outcome was affected by fraud. The former president’s allegations were also roundly rejected by courts at the time, including judges he appointed.
Last week, Trump was charged by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith with four felonies related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
DeSantis’s shift in rhetoric has come as he seeks to reset his stagnant 2024 White House campaign. Trump, who remains widely popular with the Republican Party base, is the early and commanding front-runner in next year’s GOP presidential primary.
The Times of Israel Community.