Former President Trump on Monday vowed never to endorse Senator Mike Rounds (R., S.D.) again, after Rounds called the 2020 election “fair” in a Sunday interview on ABC.
Trump said Rounds “just went woke on the Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020,” in a statement on Monday. “He found the election to be ok—just fine. Is he crazy or just stupid?”
Trump added, “The numbers are conclusive, and the fraudulent and irregular votes are massive….Even though his election will not be coming up for 5 years, I will never endorse this jerk again.”
Rounds will be up for reelection in 2026, two years after the 2024 presidential election in which Trump could run for a second term. The South Dakota senator was elected to a second term in 2020, when he received Trump’s endorsement.
Rounds said there was no indication that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, in comments to George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
“While there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would have changed the vote outcome in a single state,” Rounds said. “The election was fair, as fair as we’ve seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency.”
“As a part of our due diligence, we looked at over 60 different accusations made in multiple states…The election was fair, as fair as we've seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency,” GOP Sen. Mike Rounds says. https://t.co/RWOXLxux1e pic.twitter.com/nk7mE8xVsc
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 10, 2022
Rounds also encouraged Republicans to move past the 2020 elections to focus on winning the midterms this year.
“If we simply look back and tell our people ‘don’t vote because, you know, there’s cheating going on,’ then we’re going to put ourselves in a huge disadvantage,” Rounds said.
Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) defended Rounds following Trump’s statement on Monday.
“Mike Rounds speaks truth knowing that our Republic depends upon it,” Romney wrote on Twitter.
Mike Rounds speaks truth knowing that our Republic depends upon it. Republicans like Govs Hutchinson, Baker & Hogan; Sens McConnell, Thune & Johnson; Bush & Cheney; plus 60+ courts and even the right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial page agree: Joe Biden won the election.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) January 10, 2022
Source: National Review
