Former President Donald Trump abruptly ended an agreed-to 15-minute interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep after being pressed about lies surrounding what he calls the “rigged 2020 election,” in which he lost to President Joe Biden.
The interview started off with questions about the pandemic. Trump reiterated that his stance remains anti-vaccine mandate, but when pressed was open about his belief that the vaccine was a good decision for him personally. Trump added that he hopes therapeutics become more readily available.
Inskeep moved on to Sen. Mike Rounds‘ (R-South Dakota) interview with ABC over the weekend where he stated that it was time for the GOP to move on from their 2020 election loss and that continuing to talk about it would be a disadvantage to the party.
“No, I think it’s an advantage because otherwise, they’re going to do it again in ’22 and ’24,” Trump responded. “And Rounds is wrong on that, totally wrong. If you look at the numbers, if you look at the findings in Arizona, if you look at what’s going on in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, by the way — and take a look at Wisconsin — they’re finding things that nobody thought possible. This was a corrupt election.”
Inskeep continued to question Trump, asking about Trump allies who had investigated and found the election to be fair. Trump went on to criticize Rounds and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). He insisted that records of who signed the ballots, where the ballots came from and Biden’s voter turnout prove that the election was unfair.
Trump was then asked if GOP candidates would need to support his position of a rigged election to get his endorsement.
“They are going to do whatever they want to do — whatever they have to do, they’re going to do. But the ones that are smart — the ones that know, you take a look at. Again, you take a look at how Kari Lake is doing, running for governor. She’s very big on this issue. She’s leading by a lot. People have no idea how big this issue is, and they don’t want it to happen again. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and they don’t want it to happen again. And the only way it’s not going to happen again is you have to solve the problem of the presidential rigged election of 2020. So Steve, thank you very much. I appreciate it.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I have one more question,” Inskeep said. “I want to ask about a court hearing yesterday on Jan. 6. Judge Amit Mehta … He’s gone. Ok.”
NPR reported the interview lasted nine minutes.
