CNN
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Present and potential staffers on the Republican Nationwide Committee have been requested in current job interviews whether or not they imagine the 2020 election was stolen, in response to two sources conversant in the questioning.
Over the previous few weeks, Trump advisers have requested present and potential RNC workers about their views of fraud in the course of the 2020 election, with the query serving as an obvious litmus check for hiring, the sources stated.
Use of the query comes after the Trump marketing campaign has successfully merged its operations with the RNC.
The Washington Post first reported the substance of the interview questions.
A key focus for the Trump marketing campaign, and newly-elected management on the RNC, forward of the 2024 election is election fraud. A lot of that focus stems from former President Donald Trump’s dissatisfaction with how the RNC dealt with claims of election fraud across the 2020 election, a number of sources conversant in the matter stated. There isn’t any proof of widespread election fraud within the final presidential contest.
“Candidates who labored on the entrance line in battleground states or are presently in states the place fraud allegations have been prevalent had been requested about their work expertise. We would like skilled employees with significant views on how elections are gained and misplaced and actual experience-based opinions about what occurs within the trenches,” RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez instructed CNN.
Trump advisers have additionally instructed potential new hires that they need to plan to maneuver to West Palm Seashore, Florida, the place Trump’s marketing campaign is centered, the sources stated.
The brand new hiring questions come as Trump continues to falsely declare, each publicly and privately, that the 2020 election was rife with fraud, and counsel that President Joe Biden stole the election from him — a rallying cry that has united many GOP voters round him.
Trump’s relationship with former RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel largely fractured over the previous president’s dissatisfaction with how she dealt with alleged claims of fraud.
Shortly after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley exited the Republican main, and successfully made Trump the GOP presidential nominee, two Trump allies glided to roles on the prime of RNC management.
Trump’s endorsed candidates – North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump – had been swiftly elected to function the group’s new chair and co-chair, respectively, on the RNC’s spring assembly in Houston, Texas.
Trump additionally put in two of his senior advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, to serve in senior positions on the RNC. LaCivita took on the position of the committee’s chief working officer, whereas Blair was chosen to assist drive the RNC’s political technique, sources conversant in the plans instructed CNN. Each will proceed of their roles as advisers to Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign.
In a recent interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” McDaniel stated Trump “completely wished me to maneuver apart and wished Michael Whatley and Lara Trump to come back in.”
McDaniel added that whereas she thinks there are nonetheless issues with the safety of elections in the US, Biden gained the 2020 election “honest and sq..” (McDaniel, who made the feedback after being introduced as a paid NBC Information political analyst, was ousted from the network on Tuesday after backlash from the community’s prime tv anchors to her position in subverting the 2020 election and assaults on the press.)
Whereas chairwoman of the RNC, McDaniel refused to acknowledge that Biden gained the 2020 election. She additionally was concerned in a cellphone name in 2020 to stress Michigan county officers to not certify the vote from the Detroit space, the place Biden had a commanding lead.
Trump advisers have since described the present relationship between the marketing campaign and the RNC as “a symbiotic” one, the place they are going to function largely as one and the identical.