Even Lara Trump Can’t Explain Trump’s New Ballot Conspiracy Theory
Donald Trump keeps repeating lies about election fraud, and on Tuesday morning, CNN’s Kasie Hunt called out his daughter-in-law about it.
Hunt brought up a Truth Social post Donald Trump made on Sunday where he said that 20 percent of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent, claimed Democrats are cheating, and called for an investigation. The CNN presenter asked Lara Trump, a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, why the former president was saying this if he wanted more votes.
“He’s specifically referencing information from the 2020 election,” she replied, though that’s not actually clear in the Truth Social Post. “What we’re talking about right now is making sure that every vote matters and every vote counts.”
Hunt followed up, asking for evidence of fraudulent mail-in ballots in the 2020 Pennsylvania election.
“I didn’t see that report, so I’d have to go back and look at it,” Trump replied. “I can’t directly speak to that.”
KASIE HUNT: Why is Trump saying that 20% of mail ballots are fraudulent?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 10, 2024
LARA TRUMP: He's referencing information from the 2020 election
HUNT: What evidence is there?
LARA TRUMP: I didn't see that report, so I'd have to go back and look at it pic.twitter.com/6qfipQ0djs
Trump spent the interview trying to spin her father-in-law’s words by claiming he wants every voter in the U.S. to vote how they are most comfortable, whether that’s by mail-in ballot or in person. But this contradicts a lot of what the Republican presidential nominee has said and continues to say about the electoral process.
The former president’s conspiracies about fraudulent ballots recently convinced Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to insist on paper ballots in his state and his supporters in Georgia to change state election laws to help him. Meanwhile, he’s pressuring Republicans in the House to attach his “voter fraud” measures into a critical spending bill—thus changing voting laws just weeks before the election.
Trump has a long history of casting doubt on the electoral process, from his repeated claims about a rigged election to his refusal to accept the 2020 results and subsequent attempt to overturn them, and his preemptive efforts to discredit November’s results if they go against him. On Tuesday, Hunt exposed how Trump’s closest advisers enable this behavior even when they can’t explain it themselves.