Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says “of course” President Biden won in 2020 because he is the man sitting in the White House, offering an emphatic verdict on former President Donald Trump’s claims that the election was stolen as the pair square off in the 2024 Republican primary.
“No, of course he lost,” Mr. DeSantis told NBC News in a sitdown interview. “Joe Biden’s the president.”
“Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on January 20 every four years is the winner,” the Republican governor said.
Mr. DeSantis also told an Iowa crowd on Friday that Mr. Trump’s election fraud claims could not be proven, leading to Mr. Biden’s inauguration.
The Florida governor, who consistently ranks second behind Mr. Trump in GOP primary polling, weighed in after Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts related to his attempts to overturn the official election results in key states in 2020.
Mr. Trump continues to insist he won the contest and that Democratic forces rigged the election to rob him of a second term.
Yet his 2024 challengers are starting to push back on his claims in stronger terms.
In a recent interview, former Vice President Mike Pence said “crackpot lawyers” tried to convince Mr. Trump that he could send electoral votes back to the states when Mr. Pence presided over their certification on Jan. 6, 2021, as a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“Disloyalty in politics is alive and well. MAGA!!!” Mr. Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump remains the clear front-runner in the GOP race, despite his mounting legal troubles. He says he did nothing wrong and the Biden administration, through the Justice Department, is trying to thwart his 2024 campaign with charges that violate his First Amendment rights.
Trump attorney John Lauro told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Mr. Trump’s orbit debated how the election unfolded, and “a technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, called that argument “deranged.”
“There’s a whole apparatus of criminal law which is in place to enforce this constitutional principle. That’s what Donald Trump is charged with violating,” Mr. Raskin said on “Meet the Press.” “He conspired to defraud the American people out of our right to an honest election by substituting the real, legal process we have under federal and state law with counterfeit electors. I mean, there are people who are in jail for several years for counterfeiting one vote, if they try to vote illegally once. He tried to steal the entire election.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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