Trump seems to say 2020 election results in DC were accurate

After being indicted on Tuesday on four federal felony counts of scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump is pushing to change the trial venue from racially diverse Washington, D.C., to heavily white West Virginia. But in making the argument that the District of Columbia’s citizens are biased against him, he seemed to confirm the accuracy of the 2020 election results there.

Asked during an appearance Wednesday on CBS Mornings about the fact that a jury in Washington would come from “a city that voted overwhelmingly against the former president” and whether he would seek another venue, Trump attorney John Lauro said: “Absolutely. There’s other options. There’s certainly West Virginia, which is close by. … Listen, it’s much more diverse than Washington, D.C., which I think went 95% for Mr. Biden. Or there’s other places.”

West Virginia is far less diverse than Washington. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 92.8% of West Virginia residents were white in July 2022. Just 3.7% were Black or African American and 0.9% were Asian; 2.1% were Hispanic or Latino. Trump won the state 68.6% to 29.7% in his 2020 race against President Joe Biden.

The population of Washington, D.C., was 46.2% white, 45% Black or African American, 4.7% Asian, and 3.2% two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people made up 11.7% of the city’s populace. Biden won the jurisdiction over Trump 92.1% to 5.4.

On his Truth Social site, Trump wrote on Wednesday:

The latest Fake “case” brought by Crooked Joe Biden & Deranged Jack Smith will hopefully be moved to an impartial Venue, such as the politically unbiased nearby State of West Virginia! IMPOSSIBLE to get a fair trial in Washington, D.C., which is over 95% anti-Trump, & for which I have called for a Federal TAKEOVER in order to bring our Capital back to Greatness. It is now a high crime embarrassment to our Nation and, indeed, the World. This Indictment is all about Election Interference!!!

By claiming he wants to move jurisdictions because there are too many supporters of President Biden in D.C., Trump seemingly admitted that the 2020 result was an accurate reflection of the will of those people.

Washington, D.C. was one of the jurisdictions that automatically sent vote-by-mail ballots to every registered voter for the 2020 election. Trump denounced what he called “Unsolicited Ballot States” in September 2020, baselessly claiming they would see “MAYHEM!!!”

Two days after the 2020 election, Trump falsely claimed, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win.” Without evidence, he said: “I’ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time. It’s really destroyed our system. It’s a corrupt system. And it makes people corrupt even if they aren’t by nature, but they become corrupt; it’s too easy.”

Moving his trial away from Washington, D.C., where his alleged crimes took place, would require that he convince the court “that so great a prejudice against the defendant exists in the transferring district that the defendant cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial there.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.