Election challenge ‘stupid’ – Adviser: Trump has ‘lost touch with reality’

Former Attorney General William Barr and others called Trump’s cheating allegations “insane.” Barr said the 75-year-old was increasingly “losing touch with reality”. To this day, Trump claims without evidence that he was stripped of victory in the 2020 presidential election through electoral fraud. For weeks he tried to use the most questionable methods to then undo the election victory of his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

His camp failed with dozens of lawsuits against the election results. Opposition to the election results culminated in the attack on the Capitol, which the Congressional Commission of Inquiry is working on.

Commission publishes results for the first time
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters violently stormed the seat of Congress in Washington. Congress met there to confirm Biden’s election victory. Five people were killed in the riots. Trump had recently incited his supporters at a rally that his election victory had been stolen. He then had to undergo impeachment proceedings, from which he was eventually acquitted.

For months, the Commission of Inquiry had questioned hundreds of witnesses behind closed doors and viewed vast amounts of documents and evidence. The panel is now making its findings known in a series of public hearings.

Trump heavily taxed
In its first public meeting last week, the panel had already videotaped an interview with Barr in which he accused Trump. Stronger statements from the ex-minister followed. “I felt it was possible to reason with the president before the election,” Barr said. After the election, however, Trump stopped listening.

Claims of “complete nonsense”
“I was a little demoralized thinking, ‘Boy, if he really believes this, he’s lost touch with reality,'” Barr said of Trump’s voter fraud allegations. Barr called them “complete bullshit” and “stupid”.

He insisted: “I told him that the things his people put out to the public are nonsense.” Former Deputy Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue said he had told the president several times that there was nothing to say about the election fraud allegations.

Trump didn’t listen to advisers
Trump’s then campaign manager, William Stepien, was expected to appear live as a witness during the hearing on Monday. However, due to the birth of his child, he canceled his participation in the meeting at short notice. Video clips from an earlier study were also shown instead. Stepien said it was far too early to announce a result on election night.

He advised Trump to say just that when he appeared before his supporters and refer to the running count. Trump, however, saw it differently. The Republican had claimed victory over Biden on election night — without any basis.

Trump’s campaign adviser at the time, Jason Miller, also said he advised the president not to declare a victory until there was a better overview of the numbers.

“I thought what they suggested was crazy”
Several witnesses were highly critical of Trump’s fierce defender, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He is said to have been heavily intoxicated on election day. He would also have been partly responsible for the conspiracy theory that talked about an alleged technical manipulation in the vote counting.

“I thought what they suggested was crazy,” said former Trump attorney Eric Herschmann. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said when asked if he had ever told the president his thoughts on Giuliani, he made it clear “that essentially this wouldn’t be the approach I would take if I were you.”