Trump escalates voter fraud allegations after Arizona SOS urges him to ‘accept’ loss

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Former President Donald Trump escalated his baseless allegations of voter fraud in Phoenix on Saturday, saying Democrats can’t win an election without cheating — after Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs urged the Republican to get over his loss in the 2020 election.

Hobbs, a Democrat, encouraged Trump to “take your loss, accept it and move on” Friday night, the day before the former president spoke at a “Rally of Save Our Elections” event organized by Turning Point Action, a conservative group.

“Nothing happening here is going to change the outcome, and in fact, this is nothing more than a painful loser,” she told CNN.

As the Senate continues a months-long scrutiny of Maricopa County ballots, Trump opened his rally speech by saying that “there is no way Democrats can win an election without cheating.”

Former President Donald Trump escalated his baseless allegations of voter fraud in Phoenix on Saturday, saying that Democrats cannot win an election without cheating. In this photo, Trump leaves Trump Tower in Manhattan on July 19, 2021 in New York City. James Devani / Getty Images

Confronting Hobbs, Trump told the crowd that he would accept losing the election.

“If I lose the election, I’m fine with it. Seriously,” he said. “I’m going to start building buildings. I’m going to occupy myself, but they stole it from us.”

The former president continued to promote voter fraud conspiracy theory throughout the speech, thanking Republicans who showed support for his efforts to nullify the election and condemning those who fought against it, including former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump also repeated several specific allegations that courts have rejected in dozens of failed lawsuits seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. Among them, “74,000 ballot papers were counted by mail with no clear record of being sent” — a claim that Maricopa County election officials dismissed as disinformation.

On January 6, a mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol following a rally in which Trump called unfounded allegations of voter fraud. Some Republicans, including minority leader Senator Mitch McConnell, broke with Trump in the wake of the rebellion, but others sought an alliance with the former president in an effort to seize his loyal base.

Arizona GOP Representative Andy Briggs was met with a standing ovation from the audience earlier in the day when he suggested Trump could be brought back before 2024 — a false claim that supporters have continued to promote online.

“In 2024, if not sooner, Donald J. Trump will return to the presidency,” he said.

Officials in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, concluded a formal audit of the results without disclosing any discrepancies in November. But GOP senators pushed forward with their own review. Audits and recounts in key battleground states confirmed Biden’s victory, even in areas where pro-Trump Republicans oversaw the election.

Newsweek has reached out to Hobbs’ office for comment.

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