Trump continues to claim the 2020 election was ‘rigged and stolen’ in response to Jan. 6 committee hearings

Former President Donald Trump on Monday released a 12-page statement claiming Democrats are using the ongoing Jan. 6 committee hearings to distract Americans from inflation, gas prices and the baby formula shortage. 

The 45th president used a dozen pages to reiterate his claims that the election was rigged against him — despite the fact that many of the exact claims he mentioned have been debunked — while ignoring the chaos of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“Democrats created the narrative of January 6th to detract from the much larger and more important truth that the 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen,” Trump said in the statement.

He also said Democrats are using the House committee hearings — which were televised Thursday and Monday — to distract Americans from ongoing issues like inflation, gas prices, supply chain hold-ups, border control and the baby formula shortage.

“America is crumbling, and Democrats have no solutions. Our nation has no hope of change for the better under Democrat leadership,” Trump said. “People are desperate. Rather than solving problems, Democrats are rehashing history in hopes of changing the narrative.”

The former president called the investigation by the special House committee a “Kangaroo Court” and “smoke and mirrors show” and appeared to applaud the insurrectionists.

“The truth is that Americans showed up in Washington, D.C. in massive numbers (but seldom revealed by the press), on January 6th, 2021, to hold their elected officials accountable for the obvious signs of criminal activity throughout the Election,” Trump wrote.

He used the majority of his response to detail alleged instances of voter fraud and ballot corruption — many of which have been investigated and found to be false.

Trump questioned why several states, where he held a narrow early lead, took additional days to count ballots and claimed it was because they needed additional time to “traffic the ballots and manipulate the outcome of the Election” to give Biden more votes.

The claim was debunked by former Fox News digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt at Monday’s hearing.

The states, such as Pennsylvania, used the days following Election Day to count early votes and mail-in ballots after those cast on Election Day. Early voting and mail-in ballot numbers tend to favor Democrats, while day-of votes lean Republican — an enigma which is called a “red mirage,” Stirewalt said.

Trump also noted an alleged Democratic ballot trafficking scheme that was laughed off during Monday’s hearing. Trump cited a film produced by conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza backing the former president’s statements that the election was stolen as evidence.

Former Attorney General William Barr, who served under Trump, laughed at the mention of the film titled “2000 Mules” at Monday’s hearing.

“My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud,” Barr said during his deposition. “And I haven’t seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that, including the ‘2000 Mules’ movie.”

Barr and other Trump administration officials and campaign aides testified Monday that they repeatedly informed the former commander-in-chief that his claims of widespread election fraud and ballot tampering were bogus but he remained steadfast in his assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Trump closed his 12-page response by stating that the Jan. 6 investigation is just an attempt to stop him from running for president in 2024.

“This is merely an attempt to stop a man that is leading in every poll, against both
Republicans and Democrats by wide margins, from running again for the Presidency,” Trump said.

The next committee hearing will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m.