Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)
Trump Calls For PA Election Audit
Pennsylvania’s 2020 election is still on former President Donald Trump’s mind, seven months later.
On Friday, Trump called on Pa. lawmakers to follow their counterparts in Maricopa County, Arizona, and commission a partisan audit of the results.
Trump issued a statement lauding three GOP state lawmakers who visited Arizona this week, who support auditing the results in the Keystone State and applied pressure to two other GOP leaders in the state Senate to greenlight the operation.
“Great patriots led by State Senator Doug Mastriano, Senator Cris Dush, and State Representative Rob Kauffman went to Maricopa County, Arizona, to learn the best practices for conducting a full Forensic Audit of the 2020 General Election. Now the Pennsylvania Senate needs to act. Senate President Jake Corman needs to fulfill his promise to his constituents to conduct a full Forensic Audit. Senator Dave Argall, Chairman of the State Government Committee, has to authorize the subpoenas, if necessary. The people of Pennsylvania and America deserve to know the truth. If the Pennsylvania Senate leadership doesn’t act, there is no way they will ever get re-elected!,” Trump wrote.
The release from Trump noticeably didn’t mention state Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), who issued a statement on Thursday saying that the chamber “will not be authorizing any further audits of any previous election.” Grove chairs the state House committee that oversees election matters.
On Tuesday, Maggie Haberman, Washington correspondent for the New York Times, sent out a tweet saying that Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.”
However, legal analysts argue that Trump cannot simply be reinstated into the presidency.
The Associated Press reported two weeks ago that Mastriano said in a radio interview with WEEO-FM in Chambersburg that he met with Trump for “an hour and fifteen minutes” at Trump Tower in New York and said that the former President has previously asked him to run for Governor and pledged to campaign for him.
However, Jason Miller, a senior Trump aide sent a tweet after Mastriano made those comments and said that the former President “has not made any endorsement or commitments yet in this race.”
This also isn’t the first time that Trump has issued a public statement regarding the 2020 presidential election, while mentioning a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
In December, Trump sent out a tweet thanking House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) and falsely accused corruption in the outcome of the Pennsylvania election results.
Joe Biden bested Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by just over 1 point.