President Donald Trump once again spread lies about the outcome of the 2020 election — without any challenge.
In an additional segment of his recent interview with Fox News broadcast on Monday evening, Trump was asked by interviewer Bret Baier to weigh in on how he could motivate Russian President Vladimir Putin to enter into a negotiation with Ukraine to end the war.
Instead of answering the question, Trump went off on a tangent, once again claiming that the conflict would have never begun if he was at the White House at the time.
“Look, I say it all the time, this would’ve never happened if I were president. If the election weren’t rigged, this would’ve never happened. And let’s see whether or not Fox lets you put that in. OK?” Trump asked Baier. “Do you hear me? Rigged.”
Baier said nothing to challenge the president’s falsehoods and simply pushed the conversation along when Trump was done giving his response.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, more than a year after Trump concluded his first term in office.
Despite former President Joe Biden’s clear win in 2020, Trump has yet to concede he lost that race. He has continued to push lies that the race was “rigged” against him despite no evidence to support his disturbing allegations.
Trump was prosecuted over his efforts to undo the 2020 election result in a case overseen by then-special counsel Jack Smith. However, Smith moved to dismiss all charges against the president after Trump’s November victory, abiding by a DOJ policy that prohibits investigating sitting presidents. Smith, who also oversaw a case involving Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, resigned ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
That wasn’t enough, though, as the Justice Department last month moved to dismiss some career officials who worked on Trump’s prosecutions.
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The president still faces charges in Georgia over his and his allies’ efforts to overturn the election result in the state, but the future of that case is uncertain.
Nearly two years ago, Fox News reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, shielding the right-wing network from legal repercussions over the spread of misinformation during and after the 2020 election. Dominion had asserted that Fox News’ decision to give airtime to baseless claims that its voting machines were somehow rigged against Trump harmed the company’s reputation and resulted in lost profits.