White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to distance herself from President Donald Trump’s midterm push after Virginia voters backed a measure to give Democrats more seats ahead of November.
The president on Tuesday urged voters to vote “No” on the referendum as they were heading to the polls to cast ballots
But after the measure passed, Trump raged on Wednesday without evidence that the ballot measure was too confusing, and the election was “rigged.”
Asked why the president did not do more in advance to get people to reject the ballot measure rather than raise concerns after it passed, Leavitt argued she wasn’t involved.
“That’s a question that’s political by nature. As you know, I’m not part of the president’s political team anymore,” Leavitt said. “I do sit here at the White House as a government employee.”
Leavitt did not mention the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by federal employees, but she has been accused of violating it before.
“Look, the president has a lot on his plate, a lot on his schedule. He did host a telephone call the, prior to the election, the night before,” she added. “But he’s made his position on the results of the election clear to all of you.”
Trump, 79, gave remarks at a tele-rally on Monday night before posting about the referendum once on Tuesday.
But after voters backed Democrats’ plan to implement new congressional districts before the midterms, 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, the president went berserk in a Truth Social post.
“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in all caps on Wednesday.
“All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before—And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!” the president wrote.
Trump did not provide any evidence to support his accusations. Results in the state typically start out looking redder, as votes from rural areas come in more quickly than in more populous counties. Once more votes are counted in major population hubs, such as northern Virginia, where it takes longer to count votes, the results tend to shift further blue.
Virginia, led by state Democrats, moved to redistrict in response to Republican efforts in other states backed by Trump.
The new maps, thanks to the passage of the ballot measure, would allow them to pick up as many as four additional seats in Virginia, giving them ten seats and Republicans one. Democrats currently have six seats, and Republicans have five.
Democrats aimed to counter Republican redistricting in states like Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, which started last summer because of pressure from Trump.
Trump was livid that voters rejected his push for them to vote “No” as his entire move to lock in power in the House before voters even head to the polls in November appears at this stage to be a wash due to both parties scrambling to make changes where they could over the past year.
On top of claiming the election was rigged, Trump also offered another explanation on Wednesday in the same post for why Virginia voters went against him.
“In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive,” Trump wrote. “As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they!”
