In the weeks after Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, the people that Trump appointed to run the Department of Justice, cybersecurity agencies and intelligence departments all said the same thing — the election was fair, legitimate and free of major fraud or foreign interference.In his second term, Trump has tried to use the levers of power to rewrite that well-settled history, something that he’s expected to try again on Thursday night with an address to the nation.He has already appointed loyalists who have echoed his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and made clear he expects everyone to follow his lead. In an indication of how fealty to Trump’s lies has become a litmus test for his administration, many of his nominees have steadfastly refused to directly answer the question of who won in 2020, preferring to tersely note that Biden became president. Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to become the next national intelligence director, was the latest to repeat that formula in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.“He had the most electoral votes,” Clayton said of Biden. “He was declared the winner.”
“And who has the most electoral votes? Is it the person who wins or the person who loses?” asked Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat.
