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- White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Friday that the White House is operating as if the president has a second term, ignoring the reality of the 2020 presidential election results.
- After Joe Biden was declared president-elect last week, the former vice president has begun building his cabinet and talking to world leaders about future foreign policy initiatives.
- “From my point of view, looking at these elections, we have what seems, in a sense, an immaculate hoax,” Navarro said.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Friday that the White House functions as if the president has a second term, despite President-elect Joe Biden’s clear victory in the 2020 election.
During an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Navarro dismissed the election results, focusing on allegations of voter fraud that President Donald Trump has made in several states.
“We are moving forward here in the White House under the assumption that there will be a second term from Trump,” he said. “I think it’s really important, before people’s heads explode here, to understand that what we are looking for here are verifiable ballots, certifiable ballots, and an investigation into a growing number of allegations of fraud under affidavits signed by witnesses.”
He added that, in his “own opinion, looking at these elections, we have what seems in a sense an immaculate hoax.”
Despite claims by Navarro, Trump, and other prominent Republicans, there has been no verifiable evidence of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
Trump still refuses to grant the election to Biden, instead releasing a series of tweets filled with conspiracy theories and discredited allegations of voter fraud.
In the days following the Nov.3 election, the Trump campaign unleashed a litany of lawsuits in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Michigan, seeking to stop the counting of votes or discard the ballots. Many of the lawsuits have already been dismissed in court.
Last week, Decision Desk HQ and Insider called Arizona for Biden, bringing Biden’s Electoral College tally to 290, well above the 270 required for victory. Since he was declared president-elect, Biden has met with vice president-elect Kamala Harris to form his cabinet and has already appointed veteran Democratic adviser Ron Klain as his incoming chief of staff.
During the interview, Navarro repeatedly questioned the credibility of the election results.
“If you look at this election statistically, clearly the president won this election,” he said. “He was leading on Election Day, and then after Election Day, somehow, in these key states on the battlefield, they got enough votes to catch up with the president. That’s what is being investigated.” .
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats used mail-in ballots at much higher rates than Republicans, who overwhelmingly chose to vote on Election Day. In many states, mail-in ballots could not be counted until November 3 or in the days after, often skewing initial results to lean Republican.
Navarro insisted that Biden’s plans to form his presidential administration should not be validated.
“We have a very clear set of electoral laws … Our assumption is a second term from Trump,” Navarro said. “Any speculation about what Joe Biden might do, I think, is moot at this point.”
Fox News has called for Biden’s election, as have all the major media outlets. Biden changed Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all states that Trump won in 2016.
