A Republican House leader refused to admit that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.
Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the minority leader in the House, appeared on ABC’s This Week program more than three months after Biden won electoral college 306-232 and the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and little else a month after the Democrat was installed.
Trump now lives in Florida, but has refused to accept reality and give in, even after having the vast majority of cases set up to pursue unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud, tried and rejected in court.
He was impeached a second time for inciting the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, after telling his supporters to “fight like hell” to annul the election. Thanks to the Republicans in the Senate, he was acquitted.
“Make that clear to me,” ABC presenter Jonathan Karl told Scalise on Sunday. “Joe Biden won the election. He is the legitimate president of the United States. The election was not stolen, correct? “
“Look,” said Scalise, “Joe Biden is the president. Some states have not followed their state laws. This is really the dispute that you have seen continue.
“And, look, if you’re Joe Biden, you’re probably going to want to keep talking about impeachment and anything other than the fact that it killed millions of American jobs in the energy sector, that … they just signed the [climate] wake up. This will kill industry jobs in America.
“But at the end of the day, when you look at where we are in this country, or we are going to address the problems that happened with the election that … millions of people are still concerned, the constitution says that state legislatures are set the rules for elections , it didn’t happen in some states, and so, going forward – look, Joe Biden is the president. But he … “
Karl interrupted.
“But, Congressman, I know that Joe Biden is the president. He lives in the White House. I asked you, is he the legitimate president of the United States, and do you admit that this election was not stolen? Very simple question. Please just answer. “
“Look,” said Scalise, without answering the question. “Once voters are counted, yes, he is the legitimate president. But if you’re going to ignore the fact that there were states that didn’t follow their own … laws, that’s the main problem, that millions of people are still not happy and don’t want it to happen again.
“You know, look … you can repeat the 2020 election all day, but there are people concerned about what the next election will be like. Are we finally going to go back to how the rule of law works? “
Scalise’s comment on the rule of law echoed statements by Trump, his supporters and his lawyers, who insisted that he represents the forces of law and order, despite inciting an attack on Congress in which a police officer was one of five people killed and dozens more injured.
Scalise told Karl that he had visited Trump recently.
“I was raising funds in various parts of Florida,” he said, “I ended up in Mar-a-Lago, the president reached out and we visited. I haven’t seen him since he left the White House. And it was really good to achieve it. I realized that he was much more relaxed than in his four years at the White House.
“He is still very concerned about this country and the direction of our country. But, you know, it was more of a conversation about how he is now and what he … plans to do and how his family is doing. “
In the long run, Trump’s plans may include another run for office – or other ways to keep Republicans in Congress firmly under his control. In the short term, the former president will give a talk next week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida.
Your subject: the state of the Republican Party.