Pressed on Trump’s Election Attacks, GOP Senator Says Trump Could Be ‘Incredibly Helpful’ If He ‘Gets Focused’ on Midterms

Senator Roy Blunt (R- MO), questioned on Donald Trump’s continued 2020 election attacks, said Sunday that the former president should “get focused” on the midterms.

Chuck Todd first spoke with Blunt on Meet the Press about cyberattacks linked to Russia before bringing up Vladimir Putin talking about the 1/6 riots to ask the top GOP senator if it makes him rethink his opposition to a commission.

Blunt pointed to congressional committees working on a report coming out soon, and said, “I think you’re going to be really pleased with the report you see. And we’ll see then where we need to go next after that report’s out.”

Todd countered that their report might not deal with “the root cause”: Trump.

He brought up new reporting about an absolutely bonkers conspiracy theory Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows inquired about, as well as Trump himself continuing to push his usual false election claims.

“You’re part of this group of Republicans that has stated that you don’t believe in that nonsense,” Todd said, “but you don’t really push back at the president for spreading these falsehoods so much. Do you fear you’re not doing enough?”

Blunt said he’s concerned about people “losing faith in the election system,” but didn’t address Trump directly.

Todd asked if he thinks Trump actually believes all this or is “exploiting a chunk of your party into convincing them to believe it.”

“You know, I really can’t analyze whether he believes it or not,” Blunt responded, noting how court after court rejected Trump’s election challenges.

He went on to say Trump is “an incredibly popular figure” in the GOP and said he should be focused on the 2022 midterms.

Todd picked up on that comment to remark, “You’re not the only senator, Republican that has said, ‘Hey, look. The guy’s popular in the party, and there’s only so much…’ The implication is, ‘There’s only so much I can say or so much I can do to push back.’ It sounds almost like you’re surrendering to this nonsense.”

Blunt said his point is just that Trump is “popular and could be incredibly helpful in 2022 if he gets focused on 2022 and the differences in the two political parties.”

You can watch above, via NBC.

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