CNN
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New Hampshire Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a Republican who has pushed the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen, raised the unsubstantiated prospect that the identical might occur in 2022 throughout an interview with a radio host in New Hampshire on Monday.
Bolduc’s feedback spotlight the high-quality line he’s making an attempt to stroll on false 2020 election claims as he faces Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in what Republicans hoped could be a pickup alternative for the get together in a state President Joe Biden gained by 7 factors in 2020.
All through the Republican main, Bolduc was one of many staunchest purveyors of the false declare that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. However days after he gained his get together’s nomination and confronted a broader, much less conservative citizens, he instructed Fox Information he had modified his place and had “come to the conclusion… the election was not stolen.” The shift riled his conservative base and Bolduc waffled on the problem within the subsequent weeks.
On Monday, Bolduc went a step additional by elevating the prospect that among the identical points that led Republicans to falsely declare the 2020 election was stolen might occur in 2022.
“And so long as we have now this sort of fraud and irregularities which might be vulnerable to our system throughout this nation, we’re going to be in large bother,” Bolduc instructed radio host Jeff Kuhner. “So, it’s much less about whether or not we deal with 2020 stolen election and the way we deal with how we’re going to win in 2022 and don’t let it occur.”
He added: “How are they going to have the ability to clarify the truth that we’re both in a useless warmth or we’re edging forward of those Democrats for all the correct causes – the financial system, the out-of-control spending, lack of safety on our borders – and unexpectedly, a late night time or some form of dump with ballots or some form of dump with votes that come from machines, and the following factor you understand, you get up within the morning and the election has modified? That’s nonetheless actual.”
Within the wake of the 2020 election, one of the crucial fervent Republican complaints was that whereas early on election night time vote counts in sure key states favored Republicans, these counts modified over time – typically late into the night time and leading to Democratic wins. The shifts are regular and mirror the vote counting course of, however Republicans used the sample of vote reporting to make baseless claims about malfeasance.
Throughout the identical reply, Bolduc additionally appeared to validate an earlier phase of Kuhner’s radio present the place each a caller and the host stated the 2020 election was stolen. “You’re proper, they stole it within the final election. There is no such thing as a query about it. No query,” the radio host stated shortly earlier than bringing the New Hampshire Senate candidate on the present.
Bolduc stated throughout his reply that he “heard your earlier phase, and it’s completely true.”
Hassan responded to Bolduc’s feedback by saying, “New Hampshire has a protracted historical past of conducting free and pretty administered elections.”
She added that Bolduc’s ideas “undermine our democracy and jeopardize our freedom.”
Bolduc’s battle together with his election denial has hampered his normal election marketing campaign, giving fodder to Democrats, worrying some reasonable Republicans who’ve stated they will’t vote for an election denier and annoying among the Republican base who had been animated by Bolduc’s steadfastness on the problem.
“I signed a letter with 120 different generals and admirals saying Trump gained the election, and rattling it, I stand by [it],” Bolduc stated throughout a mid-August debate.
Just a few days after his post-primary shift, nonetheless, Bolduc stated on a podcast that, “The narrative that the election was stolen, it doesn’t fly up right here in New Hampshire for no matter purpose” however “what does fly… is that there was important fraud and it must be fastened.”
Democrats have seized on this waffling.
“Don Bolduc has spent your entire marketing campaign touting the Huge Lie, and he can’t conceal from that file,” Hassan marketing campaign spokesman Kevin Donohoe stated after Bolduc’s post-primary shift. “A phrase salad on Fox won’t erase his file of election denial.”
Bolduc’s marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to CNN’s questions on his current feedback.
