Republican National Committee co-chair and 2020 election denier, Michael Whatley, pushed back on Donald Trump’s suggestion that he could have won California if Jesus himself had counted ballots.
“If Jesus Christ came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK?” Trump told Dr. Phil in a Tuesday interview.
Fox LA anchor Elex Michaelson asked Whatley — who shares the mantle atop the RNC with Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law — to explain the comments, which cast doubt onto California election legitimacy.
Whatley initially sanitized Trump’s comments as mostly accurate, if not “a little bit of a stretch,” before Michaelson pushed back.
“Trump lost here by close to 5 million votes. Do you have evidence that he actually won this state, that there were 5 million more people that voted for him that weren’t counted?” Michaelson asked.
“No . . . You know, I mean, the president can tell stories at any time, but that’s . . . look, I think the key is that we want to make the point that it is very important for us to have election security protection in place, that we are going to protect the ballot,” Whatley said.
.@ChairmanWhatley visits @CAGOP to discuss @GOP's efforts to "protect the vote."
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) August 30, 2024
"We want to make sure we have volunteers or attorneys anytime votes are being cast or counted."
He's encouraging Republicans to sign up to be poll workers & observers.
Via @FOXLA @TheIssueIsShow pic.twitter.com/c4DHAnNi5p
Whatley, framing Trump’s insistence that he would have won California if it weren’t for some form of cheating as “stories,” seemingly agreed with Michaelson that narratives insisting voters’s voices won’t be counted were harmful.
But Whatley, who is backing an RNC effort to install over a hundred thousand poll watchers in precincts around the country, has a record of denying the 2020 election, a feature that contributed to Trump’s support for his RNC leadership.
