Donald Trump definitely lost in 2020, says Ron DeSantis

The 44-year-old Florida governor had repeatedly skirted the issue of vote-rigging in past campaign events.

Some supporters have urged Ron DeSantis to sharpen his attacks on the former president. Picture: AFP

In a direct attack that many of his supporters have been calling for, Ron DeSantis has said unequivocally that Donald Trump, his rival for next year’s Republican presidential nomination, lost the 2020 election.

The Florida governor, 44, has repeatedly skirted the issue of vote-rigging in past campaign events. When asked about the 2020 election, he has stuck to the view that the Republican party lost the last three national elections – the 2018 mid-term elections, the 2020 presidential vote, and last year’s mid-terms.

But speaking to broadcaster NBC on Monday, Mr DeSantis changed tack. “Of course he lost,” he said. “Joe Biden’s the president. Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on January 20 every four years is the winner.”

The DeSantis campaign has stuttered in recent weeks, with Mr Trump’s poll lead stretching to almost 50 percentage points in some surveys. This has led to some supporters urging Mr DeSantis to sharpen his attacks on the former president. It could prove a risky strategy, though. A poll for news network CNN last week showed that 71 per cent of registered Republican voters believe Mr Biden’s victory was illegitimate. There is no evidence the 2020 election result was rigged.

The comments come days after Mr Trump appeared in a federal court in Washington DC, charged with attempting to overturn the 2020 election result. There have been growing calls from across the US political spectrum for Mr Trump’s forthcoming criminal trials to be broadcast on television, a move that would reverse an established rule in federal courtrooms, where cameras are banned.

Others fear that the spectacle of the former president, 77, going on trial would further divide the US.

In an essay for The New York Times, Steven Brill, founder of Court TV, which broadcasts legal proceedings, said: “The erosion of trust in basic facts is largely the result of too many people getting their news from social media platforms.”

He said the “presentation of both sides’ arguments subject to the rules of evidence and …not the algorithms of Facebook and Twitter might temper the national mood when a verdict is announced”.

Mr Trump faces 44 federal felony charges in two cases.

John Lauro, one of Mr Trump’s lawyers, said at the weekend that he would “love to see” the cameras rolling during the Trump trials. He told the Fox News Sunday program: “I’m convinced the Biden administration does not want the American people to see the truth.”

The Times