Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said Monday that “nobody cares” about Donald Trump’s 2020 election complaints — and even accused the former president of telling an “outright lie.”
SO WHAT
Trump is facing unprecedented pressure to move on from 2020.
WHAT HAPPENED
Kilmeade, a co-host of the “Fox & Friends” morning show and close Trump ally, agreed with a caller to his Fox News Radio program who expressed concerns about the former president.
“Logan,” a self-described “huge Trump supporter,” said he was worried the former president’s “almost cringeworthy” focus on the 2020 presidential contest could cost him reelection in 2024.
- “Right now, nobody cares about 2020. Nobody,” replied Kilmeade, referring to Trump’s continued rejection of his electoral loss as “rigged.”
- “Everything that [Trump] said and the challenges that he made should’ve been done before the election. And they did a recount in Arizona, and the recount showed no difference almost, and he came out and said it showed that they won Arizona. That’s an outright lie, and please stop wasting our time with that, because he’s capable of doing so much more.”
“Fox & Friends” was said to be Trump’s favorite show as president, and Kilmeade served as an informal White House adviser.
- But the Fox News pundit has repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s challenges to the integrity of the 2020 election.
- Trump has yet to respond.
WHY IT’S DIFFERENT NOW
Kilmeade’s criticisms of Trump followed a wild weekend of reckoning within the GOP.
- On Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence said it would have been “un-American” for him to overturn the election as Trump demanded, and the Republican National Committee formally censured the two Republicans on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
- A number of prominent congressional Republicans subsequently supported Pence’s statement and criticized the RNC’s move, contra Trump’s reiterated positions,
- But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s biggest potential Republican challenger in 2024, avoided taking sides Monday when pressed.