Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said he stands by his comments stating that President Biden won a fair election in 2020, even after Donald Trump asked if he was “crazy or just stupid” for his beliefs.
The senator said there was no evidence of rigging that would have impacted the results of the election.
Rounds made his statements in a Sunday interview on ABC News’ This Week.
“The election was fair, as fair as we have seen,” he said. “We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency. And moving forward — and that’s the way we want to look at this — moving forward, we have to refocus once again on what it’s going to take to win the presidency.”
Trump responded by calling Rounds a “RINO,” or a “Republican in name only.”
“The only reason he did this is because he got my endorsement and easily won his state in 2020, so now he thinks he has time, and those are the only ones, the weak, who will break away,” Trump said. “Even though his election will not be coming up for 5 years, I will never endorse this jerk again.”
Rounds, along with Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), are two of the few Republicans to publicly criticize Trump.
“Welcome to the club,” Thune said after hearing about Trump’s critique of Rounds.
GOP members, like Rounds, have concerns that Trump’s refusal to move past the 2020 election may hurt their party. He said that it’s dangerous for the party to concentrate on “election fraud,” because people won’t turn out for the next election if they don’t trust the system. Rounds applauded former Vice President Mike Pence for confirming Biden’s victory and “acting with integrity.”
“It’s time for the rest of us to do the same,” he said.
