Former President Barack Obama said that former President Donald Trump violated a “core tenet” of democracy and made up a “bunch of hooey” about the 2020 presidential election.
Obama said during his first virtual fundraiser since the election that Trump’s questions about the legitimacy of the election undermined democracy and paved the way for efforts to suppress voters, The Guardian reported.
“What we saw was my successor, the former president, violate that core tenet that you count the votes and then declare a winner — and fabricate and make up a whole bunch of hooey,” the former Democratic president said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that election fraud led to his defeat in November.
Despite numerous allegations of voting irregularities, no court has ruled that there was widespread fraud that affected the results of the 2020 election.
“What’s been called ‘the big lie’ suddenly gains momentum,” Obama said of Republican-controlled legislatures passing new voting laws.
“Here’s the bottom line. If we don’t stop these kinds of efforts now, what we are going to see is more and more contested elections … We are going to see a further de-legitimizing of our democracy.”
The fundraiser was for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee that will redraw congressional districts in the United States.
History and redistricting suggest that Democrats are likely to lose their control of the House of Representatives in the coming year, according to The Guardian.
Obama’s comments came on the heels of an article in The Atlantic in which former attorney general William Barr called Trump’s claims “bulls**t.”
“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr said.
“If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bulls**t.”
Although the Department of Justice did not conduct a formal investigation into voter fraud allegations, Barr conducted his own, unofficial inquiry.
Mitt Romney likened Trump’s election fraud claims during his rallies to the WWF Superstars of Wrestling in an interview Sunday.
“Well, I do think it’s important for each person to speak the truth and to make clear that the ‘Big Lie’ is exactly that,” the Utah Republican told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“But I also think, frankly, Jake, that here in the US, there’s a growing recognition that this is a bit like WWF. That it’s entertaining, but it’s not real. And I know people want to say, yeah, they believe in the ‘Big Lie’ in some cases, but I think people recognize that it’s a lot of show, and bombast. But it’s going nowhere.”
He added, “The election is over. It was fair … let’s move on.”
