Trump Admits to Lying about the 2020 Election- Three Times!!!
Trump Admits to Lying about the 2020 Election- Three Times!!!
“It Would’ve Been Good to Know That…” (about Trump’s “Big Lie” Regarding the 2020 Election) Nick Fuentes, Nazi sympathizer and (perhaps now former) Trump supporter.
Even Trump’s Far Right Supporters are Puzzled Asking- Why Tell Us this Now?
Here are the words of Donald Trump, spoken at least three times in recent weeks regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election[1]:
"I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, you would win. You can’t not win. And I got millions of more votes than that and lost by a whisker,"[2]
WHAT???!!! Trump said publicly that he lost the 2020 election?! This being said by him after years of his denying that very thing?!
Trump said this about President Joe Biden regarding the 2020 presidential election during an August 4th interview with podcaster Lex Fridman. And, Trump said something using similar language at the August 30th Moms for Liberty Summit as well as an August 23 event at the Southern border.[3]
Take Note…
Keeping in mind the Christian evangelicals supporting Trump, one has to wonder how they reconcile Trump’s words admitting to his Big Lie to their belief in the inerrancy of Scripture, which says:
“…then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23 NKJV)
Nonetheless, Trump did say it, and if one believes lying is a sin, then Trump’s sin “has found him out.” Note that he said it more than once. Regardless of one’s political leanings, it is now irrefutable that Trump has admitted that he knew he had lost the 2020 election. Further, by admitting he knew he lost, he knows he lied to the American people about losing that election.
Think About the Magnitude of What Trump has Admitted!
Sometimes one can’t help but be astonished and bewildered how something that is said by an American politician in the MAGA era can go largely unnoticed by a large swath of Americans. However, to some extent, a statement like this one by Trump going mostly unnoticed by many Americans is explainable. We have been bombarded for years by Trump and his MAGA “firehose of lies,” a disinformation strategy straight out of the “strongman’s playbook (thanks Russia!).
In the Trump “strongman era,” truth has become lies and lies have become truth. Since we are inundated with this false and misleading rhetoric, we have difficulty knowing what is true and what is not. Consequently, many Americans often default to believing whatever Trump and his MAGAs say. After all, a former president of the U.S. wouldn’t lie to us, would he?
But, as is attributed to founder John Adams, “…Facts are stubborn things…”[4], and this particular Trump statement is indeed a fact has bubbled up and has stubbornly not gone away. Thanks to some in the media (like Substack writer Steve Schmidt[5] and others), Trump’s own words are getting the scrutiny they deserve given their significance and gravity. This attention has occurred despite much of the corporate news media largely ignoring Trump’s statement.
Still, knowing all the falsehoods about the 2020 election that have flowed from Trump and his minions to date, you can’t help but ask yourself- did he really say this? Really? Why is he saying this now? It seems almost unbelievable that someone like Trump, who knew he had lost the 2020 election and yet has lied about it for years, has finally admitted he had lost it “by a whisker”.
Think About the Impact of This Lie
But we can believe it. He did say it- you can “take that to the bank.” The admission of the falsity of the Big Lie has now been made. By no less than Donald Trump himself. Further, think about all the events that have occurred over the last four years because of Trump’s lie. Think about the desecration and vandalism of our Capitol by the January 6th insurrectionist mob he incited. Think about all the January 6th insurrectionists who have been convicted and are now in jail. Think about all the lawyers and their true believer sycophantic grifters like attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani, along with attorney John Eastman and others, attempted to rig our 2020 election via frivolous court cases and fake elector schemes.
Think of all the people that were verbally and emotionally bullied and roughly handled that were simply doing their jobs to administer the 2020 election when Trump and his cronies put the “full court press” on them in order to overturn the election. Think about all the GOP members of Congress that went along with this lie, either by assent or remaining silent, and the damage it did to Americans’ confidence in their elections, the very bedrock of our democracy.
Think of all the police officers who were savagely assaulted during the January 6th insurrection which Trump instigated . Some of these police officers died in the aftermath of this trauma. Think about the young woman shot and killed because, believing Trump’s claims, she tried to breach a door window into the House Chamber. The list of tragedies all stemming from this Big Lie goes on and on. They all tie back to one man- Donald J. Trump.
It’s hard for most of us to fathom any answers to the question as to why Trump admitted his lie now. At least it is hard to fathom for most of us because most people do not possess the truly dysfunctional personality elements of Trump, including delusion, malignant narcissism, and megalomania (to name only a few). Why did he admit it now? There probably are many more questions you probably can think of asking. Even a Nazi sympathizer has some.
Even Trump’s Extreme Far Right Has Questions
White nationalist and podcaster Nick Fuentes certainly has some questions. Fuentes is, or was, an ardent Trump supporter. He’s a Nazi sympathizer and holocaust denier who has even dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.[6] Fuentes was gob smacked about what Trump had said, and offered these comments regarding Trump’s admission, saying:
"So, why did we do Stop the Steal? Why did anyone go to Jan. 6? Why did anyone go to jail? ... It would have been good to know that before 1,600 people got charged," Fuentes said on his podcast, referring to the criminal charges for those who invaded and ransacked the Capitol. "It would’ve been good to know that before I had all my money frozen, put on a no-fly list, banned from everything, lost all my bank and payment processing.”[7] (emphasis mine)
It’s a fairly safe assumption that the convicted January 6th insurrectionists now serving jail time are asking the same questions. They certainly would have liked to have known that Trump “lost by a hair” before storming the Capitol at Trump’s encouragement.
Can You Believe It?
Do not be sympathetic to Fuentes. He’s a person whose beliefs are toxic to democracy. Fuentes made a “bad bet” based on the words of Trump, a man with a proven record of not dealing with others in good faith in order to promote his own interests. At the same time, it is hard to believe that someone so misguided and deluded as white supremacist Nick Fuentes can make such an insightful statement as “It would have been good to know that…”
However, Fuentes is correct, at least to that extent. What if Americans had known Trump’s claims that he had won the 2020 election were a lie? Perhaps so much of the physical, emotional, and psychological destruction that the Big Lie and its insurrection has had on this nation could have been averted, or at least greatly reduced.
Would the thousands of people that came to the nation’s capital in January 2021 to “Stop the Steal” have done so if Trump had not only conceded electoral defeat in November 2020, but affirmed the fairness of the election and gone so far as to affirm the importance of the peaceful transfer of power to our democracy? But if you know anything about strongman leaders, to let go of power voluntarily and acknowledge electoral defeat is not in their “DNA.” So it is with Trump, and his damage to America at so many levels has been life threatening for our democracy. The fact remains, however, it “would’ve been good to know” that Trump was lying. It would have been good for all Americans, not just the ones in jail, although they believed him unquestionably and unconditionally.
That was their first big mistake.
Retracting It Didn’t Take Long
For those that still support Trump, they can “rest easy” knowing that it did not take long for him to “walk back” his admission that he lied and by admitting that he lied, he was also admitting that he knew he was lying. Trump’s “retraction” of his “lost by a whisker statement” occurred at his first (and likely only) debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamela Harris as shown in the debate transcript. Here it is:
DAVID MUIR (MODERATOR): “…Truth in these times that we're living in. Mr. President, for 3 and a half years after you lost the 2020 election you repeatedly falsely claimed that you won, many times saying you won in a landslide. In the past couple of weeks leading up to this debate, you have said, quote, you lost by a whisker, that you, quote, didn't quite make it, that you came up a little bit short.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said that?
DAVID MUIR: Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, I don't acknowledge that at all.
DAVID MUIR: But you did say that.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said that sarcastically. You know that. It said, oh we lost by a whisker. That was said sarcastically. Look, there's so much proof. All you have to do is look at it…
DAVID MUIR: …I did watch all of these pieces of video. I didn't detect the sarcasm, lost by a whisker, we didn't quite make it…”[8]
You be the Judge
So, there you have it. Proof that a liar can admit he lied, but then deny that he admitted lying by offering as his excuse non-existent proof that he was being sarcastic when he admitted the lie (against all video proof), thus not really admitting the lie. Whew! It takes some “mental gymnastics” to navigate this maize of lies, but it does give insight into how Trump’s mind functions.
Again, perhaps it is good to keep in mind some further Biblical perspective on Mr. Trump and his Big Lie when considering this matter within the context of the 2024 presidential election:
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…”[9] (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
That is certainly something that is good to know as well. For ultimately, in less than fifty days, American voters will get to decide not only how each candidate “thinks in their heart,” as the writer of Proverbs tells us, but we get to decide who tells us the truth. We must choose wisely.
We are in 2024, an election year, a year I call “the Year of the Precipice” for our democracy. We are now examining forces in our politics that are abnormal to democracy but have come to seem normal to many of us. I call them “democracy destroyers.”
We will continue exploring topics like this that are not given near enough time and emphasis in our civic education efforts if they are even taught at all. Democracy is so important. But it’s hard to keep, and it’s easy to lose. It’s up to us, and only us, to protect it. Support democracy, become a Democratist! Spread the word! Please share this Democraticus with others! For more information, go to www.tomthedemocratist.com
[1] Trump admits he lost in 2020, leading white nationalist Nick Fuentes to disavow him (aol.com)
[2] 'Not a slip': Critics explain Trump's admission that he lost 2020 'by a whisker' - Raw Story
[3] Trump admits he lost in 2020, leading white nationalist Nick Fuentes to disavow him (aol.com)
[4] “Facts Are Stubborn Things,” Quote Investigator, https://quote investigator.com/2010/06/18/facts-stubborn/
[5] “Donald’s Big Lie Revealed,” by Steve Schmidt, The Warning, September 6, 2024, Copyright 2024.
[6] Trump admits he lost in 2020, leading white nationalist Nick Fuentes to disavow him (aol.com)
[7] Trump admits he lost in 2020, leading white nationalist Nick Fuentes to disavow him (aol.com) and What Is Even Left of MAGA? (rumble.com)
[8] READ: Harris-Trump presidential debate transcript - ABC News (go.com)
[9] Proverbs 23:7 NKJV - For as he thinks in his heart, so is - Bible Gateway