‘This Is Just False’: Axios Slammed For Reporting Trump Has Backed Away From Stolen Election Claims He Made Just Days Before
Axios raised some eyebrows on Monday with a report on Donald Trump pivoting away from directly claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen – despite having explicitly made the widely debunked claim over the weekend.
“As the former president will need support from college-educated voters, Donald Trump has recently avoided claiming that the 2020 election he lost was ‘stolen’ and instead has said, ‘We were interrupted’ or ‘something very bad happened,’” tweeted Axios on Monday morning.
The report by national politics reporter Sophia Cai was headlined, “Top Trump advisers try to steer him off personal drama,” and largely focused around Trump’s inner circle pushing him to pivot away from election denial.
The report also noted, “But as Trump looks to wrap up the GOP nomination soon and pivot toward a likely rematch against President Biden, he’s tweaking some of his rhetoric — particularly about the 2020 election — when he’s before broader audiences.”
Cai went on to offer some examples of Trump referring to his so-called “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen by using what she called “vague euphemisms.”
Critics, however, were quick to point out that Trump explicitly called the 2020 election “rigged” as recently as Saturday during a rally rife with explicit election denial.
Axios did not respond to a request for comment on the critical pushback regarding its report.
Business Insider political reporter Bryan Metzger replied to the Axios tweet, simply writing, “lol.”
Left-leaning political pundit Luppe B. Luppen, aka Southpaw, added, “This is just false. Trump hasn’t tempered his language one bit. Here’s a snippet of CSPAN’s closed captioning from his speech in NC on Saturday—less than 48h ago.”
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign also hammered Axios over the report, adding, “Here is Trump calling the 2020 election “stolen” and “rigged” over and over again as recently as… this past weekend.”
Mediaite covered Trump’s remarks Saturday in North Carolina in an article headlined, “Trump Drops an All-Time Whopper at Rally, Claims 82% of the Country ‘Understands That it Was a Rigged Election.’”
Below are some additional reactions:
https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/1764698450942116183
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