Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and ally to Donald Trump, predicted on Sunday that the former president "will lose" the 2024 general election if he continues to harp on his 2020 loss.
Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, is likely to face off against President Joe Biden once again next year in a reelection rematch. Despite being criminally indicted several times on the state and federal level in which he maintains his innocence, Trump continues to have support from his loyal Make America Great Again (MAGA) base.
In August, Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. The DOJ's investigation initially centered around the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, which saw a mob of Trump supporters—allegedly incited by his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud—violently protest at the Capitol building in a failed effort to block Biden's 2020 Electoral College victory. In addition, Trump has accused prosecutors of investigating him for political purposes.
During a Sunday interview appearance on ABC News' This Week, journalist Pierre Thomas asked the Republican senator, "Former President Trump continues to say he won the [2020] election. He claims to be an election denier, proudly. Now, we teach our children when they lose something to shake the opponent's hand and move on. Are you concerned that the former president is not setting the proper standard going forward here, sir?"
In response, Graham called out Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 presidential Democratic opponent.
"Well, you know, Hillary Clinton didn't — had the same view that she was cheated," he scoffed. "He's not the first politician to claim to have been denied a fair election."
Clinton has previously criticized the legitimacy of the 2016 election, pointing to Trump's alleged ties with Russia.
"But you don't win by 3 million votes and have all this other shenanigans and stuff going on and not come away with an idea like, 'Whoa, something's not right here.' That was a deep sense of unease," Clinton said in a 2020 interview with The Atlantic.
The former secretary of state and former first lady claimed that Trump was "a puppet of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin," and said he was "unfit" to be president.
The DOJ's special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election did not find evidence that Trump's campaign "conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in the election interference activities," according to Mueller's report.
However, Mueller's report did find that "the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts..."
Russia has denied interfering in the election, while the former president has repeatedly called the FBI's investigation into the alleged election interference a hoax.
After responding about Clinton, Graham then shifted his focus to Trump during his Sunday interview.
"If President Trump puts a vision out improving security and prosperity for Americans, he will win," he said. "If he looks back, I think he will lose. So at the end of the day, the 2020 election's over for me. We need to secure the ballot in the 2024 cycle, but Donald Trump's not the first person to complain about an election."
Newsweek reached out to Graham's office and Trump's campaign via email for comment.
What the Polls Show
In a McLaughlin & Associates poll of 1,000 general election likely voters that was conducted from December 13 to 19, the former president was ahead of Biden by 3 points (47 to 44 percent).
In a poll from YouGov/Yahoo News conducted between December 14 and 18, Trump and Biden were tied at 44 percent. A total of 1,533 U.S. adults were polled and there was a margin of error of 2.8 percent.
Biden took a small lead in a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,647 registered voters conducted from December 14 to 18. Biden had 47 percent of voter support while Trump had 46 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 2.4 percent.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
