Former President Donald Trump openly admitted that he did not win the 2020 presidential election. tells podcaster Lex Friedman that he “lost by a whisker.”
On Tuesday’s episode of the podcast, Friedman asked the Republican candidate his expectations for next week’s debate against the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I debated a lot … I did well in the debates,” Trump replied, before launching into a rant about how many votes he received in 2020, adding, “I became president. And then the second first time when I got millions more votes than I did.”
“I was told that if I won 63 million, the first time I won was like this: “You will win. You can’t win.’ And I got millions more votes than that and I lost by a whisker,” Trump added.
accepted about Trump 74 million votes Nationally in 2020, compared to 81 million for Joe Biden.
His admission departs from his usual rhetoric about the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he often claims is a “fake.”
Trump later cast doubt on the election in a podcast with Friedman, saying, “I think the election was rigged and a lot of people felt it was and wanted answers.”
After the 2020 election, Trump and his team spent weeks protesting election results in swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
He is facing Trump four federal felony charges It is related to efforts to cancel the 2020 elections. A federal grand jury has returned an indictment impeaching Trump deliberately lied Spreading “unsupported, objectively baseless and ever-changing” claims about the 2020 election. Trump said his lawyers would do it plead not guilty on his behalf during a hearing in the case Thursday.
Separately, Trump also faces criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly trying to alter the state’s election results.
On the eve of this year’s presidential elections Republicans have already launched lawsuits in battleground statesincluding in Michigan over whether Detroit has hired enough GOP poll workers and in North Carolina arguing that state voter rolls can allow noncitizens to vote.
Democrats warn that these pre-election legal actions could be used to cast doubt by the GOP if Trump loses re-election.
Ryan J. Reilly contributed.