Donald Trump’s acting attorney general has claimed to have “a ton” of evidence that the 2020 election was rigged but nonetheless refused to promise there would ever be a “definitive answer.”
During a Sunday segment on Mornings with Maria, Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seemed to pour fuel into the president’s long-held claims that he’d been robbed of the election, despite exhaustive investigations and court cases finding no sign of that.
Blanche touted “multiple investigations” and said the Justice Department is “studying” efforts by past administrations to “destroy” Trump. But he refused to say he believed there was a “conspiracy” against the president and waffled when asked to commit to any kind of investigative conclusion.
“So you believe there will be at some point a definitive answer as to whether or not the 2020 election was stolen?” asked Bartiromo, who admitted as part of a 2021 defamation case that she’d asked Trump’s lawyer to find evidence of cheating after his presidential loss.
Blanche avoided giving a “definitive answer,” but told her, “We’re looking at it, and we’re hoping to get one.”
The evasive response came after the attorney general, earlier in the conversation, claimed there was “a ton of evidence” that has existed “for many, many years.”
So far, six years after the election, dozens of challenges to the results have yielded no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud, but the Trump administration is nonetheless conducting a sweeping Justice Department investigation into allegations of election fraud across the country.
In January, the investigation came into the spotlight as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard came under fire for her role in an FBI raid on an election facility in Georgia, as it was unprecedented for someone in Gabbard’s position to be present at that type of domestic law enforcement operation.
President Donald Trump, 79, who has sought to rehabilitate supporters who faced charges or accusations of wrongdoing tied to efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, previously demanded that Georgia’s top election official “find 11,780 votes” after Biden narrowly won the state.
“The president says all the time that the election was rigged,” Bartiromo said about Trump, as she played a video of a comment made by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who has previously described the president as having an “alcoholic’s personality.”
In the clip, which Bartiromo said the Fox News audience was “pepped up about,” Wiles can be heard recalling how, after the 2020 loss, the president repeatedly asked her why he had lost certain states.
“He wanted to know why he won in Florida but struggled in some other states,” Wiles said in the video, adding: “I think we’re going to find out he actually did win.”
Other top MAGA figures, like Blanche, have similarly continued to say that “evidence” is being collected to prove the election was stolen, as Republicans face potential losses in the upcoming November midterm elections.
“We have the evidence that the Republican establishment did not want you to see: that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump,” MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon told supporters in March.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
