Sen. Ted Cruz says he hasn’t made any decisions on 2024 yet, will ‘wait and see’ if Trump runs
August 8, 2022
Former President Trump on Monday said he will never endorse Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), calling him a “jerk” and “a weak and ineffective leader.”
Trump, who previously endorsed Rounds in 2020, was responding to the South Dakota senator after he refuted the former president’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen and said that “the election was fair” during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The only reason he did this is because he got my endorsement and easily won his state in 2020, so now he thinks he has time, and those are the only ones, the weak, who will break away,” the former president said. “Even though his election will not be coming up for 5 years, I will never endorse this jerk again.”
Rounds refuted Trump’s claims about the 2020 race being fraudulent during an appearance Sunday on ABC News. The senator said “due diligence” was done to investigate accusations but no widespread irregularities were found.
“The election was fair, as fair as we have seen,” he said. “We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency. And moving forward, and that’s the way we want to look at this moving forward, we have to refocus once again on what it’s going to take to win the presidency.”
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Rounds said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the former president’s irate rebuke of him earlier that day after the GOP senator came out against the Big Lie of a “stolen” election.
Rounds also stood by his remarks to ABC News that the former president lost the 2020 election. “This isn’t new information. If we’re being honest, there was no evidence of widespread fraud that would have altered the results of the election,” Rounds said.
ARTICLE: PAUL MURDOCH
MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: WASHINGTON POST