Former President Donald Trump called the 2020 presidential election “rigged” and “illegitimate” on Saturday in response to a New York Times article that claimed conservative organizations are “feeding corrosive falsehoods about the prevalence of voter fraud” to raise money.
“The New York Times did a story today saying that various Republican groups, many of them outstanding, are rallying on false claims that conservative activists are finding that the best way to raise money and keep voters engaged is to make Donald J. Trump’s biggest fabrication, Election Fraud, their top priority,” Trump said in a press release from the Save America PAC, according to National File.
In the article, reporter Jeremy W. Peters argued that groups like the Susan B. Anthony List and the American Principles Project have had to ignored their normal fundraising positions—opposition to abortion, homosexual marriage, and transgenderism—to focus instead on the non-issue of voter fraud.
He writes that conservatives, and particularly Trump’s loyal supporters, have been duped into thinking that the Republican Party cannot achieve its policy goals until voter fraud is eliminated.
But Trump said that election integrity should remain a top priority.
“Sadly, the Election was Rigged, and without even going into detail, of which there is much, totally game changing,” he said. “No wonder so much money is being raised on this issue, and law-abiding people have every right to do so!”
Trump blamed state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, for failing to address election fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
“The Supreme Court and other Courts were afraid to rule, they were ‘gutless,’ and will go down in history as such,” he said.
Trump also said Republican state legislatures, which failed to combat power-hungry bureaucrats and secretaries of state, did not ratify massive election changes.
“Democrats could not get Republican Legislatures in Swing States to approve many of the voting changes which took place before the Election, which is mandated under the Constitution of the United States,” Trump said. “For that reason alone, we had an Illegitimate Election.”