Newly minted Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said Tuesday that she believes the party is "past" litigating the 2020 election, comments that come as her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, prepares to face two juries on charges alleging that he illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election results.
"I think we’re past that. I think that’s in the past," Lara Trump told NBC News when she was asked whether it will be the RNC's position that the 2020 election was not fairly decided.
"The past is the past, and unfortunately, we had to learn a couple of hard lessons in 2020," she continued. "Believe me, we are applying them all across this country in every single state, and we want to ensure that, indeed, every single legal vote is counted.”
Lara Trump’s comments illustrate a key dynamic in the Republican Party in 2024: As she sought to cast the 2020 election as “in the past” and champion voting by mail, re-litigating the 2020 election, repeating false claims it was stolen and casting aspersions on the security of mail voting remain major fixtures for her father-in-law on the stump.
Last weekend, meanwhile, the former president said the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley wouldn’t have been in America “if the election weren’t rigged, because we didn’t allow people like that into our country.”
He regularly refers to the 2020 election as “rigged” on his social media channels. And, most critically, he faces charges in Washington, D.C., and Georgia related to his attempts to overturn the election results.
Lara Trump has previously and publicly backed unfounded claims about the 2020 election made by her father-in-law and other allies. Days after the 2020 election, she posted on social media casting doubt on Dominion voting machines (Dominion settled with Fox News for more than $700 million after it sued alleging the network allowed defamatory claims about the company to proliferate on the network). A month later, she posted again casting doubt on the election results in Michigan.
Trump pointed to dozens of lawsuits the RNC has filed over election administration (most recently in Nevada, where the party is suing the state over its voter rolls) as examples of how the committee is wading into questions about election laws ahead of November.
Asked about the former president’s past comments undercutting mail-in voting, Lara Trump said he is singing a different tune.
“Well, I actually think if you talk to him right now, you will see that he is very much embracing early voting,” she said.
“I think that the message that the people of this country have sent to Donald Trump, and you saw it in the primaries, is that they want to get out and they want to vote for him as soon as they possibly can,” she continued. “And if that means Day 1 of early voting for people, he’s very happy for them to go out and do it.”
New leadership at the RNC
Lara Trump officially stepped into the role of co-chair this month at the RNC's spring meeting, after former chair Ronna McDaniel and co-chair Drew McKissick stepped aside for the leadership team blessed by Donald Trump. Former North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley is now the group's chairman, the top slot at the national party organization.
Asked what she would say to voters wary of a Trump takeover of the RNC, Lara Trump made an appeal based on her experience on the past Trump campaigns, noting that her father-in-law had tasked her to help him win her home state, North Carolina, twice.
“I have had so much experience," she said. "If you look at the fact that I am one of very few people who can say that I have been part of now three presidential campaigns, the media exposure and experience that we in the Trump family have had over the past eight years rivals most people who make their career in politics.
“I think the reason that I’m here is to assure people who ever had any question as to how their money is being spent, can they trust the RNC? Can they donate to this entity?" Trump added. "Trust me, I am the daughter-in-law of Donald Trump. I will ensure that every penny of every dollar is going to causes that Republican voters care about.”
And asked about her message to Republican voters who backed other GOP presidential candidates, like former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, she framed the election as a binary choice for Republicans who don't want President Joe Biden re-elected.
"They don't want to vote for Joe Biden, that's for sure. The option is Joe Biden or Donald Trump," she said. "Whether you like his personality or not should not have any bearing on anything. They are welcome to come back. We are here to work as a party."
Before she officially joined the RNC, Lara Trump told Newsmax that "every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the RNC — that is electing Donald J. Trump," and said Republican voters would be interested in paying the former president's mounting legal bills.
She has since broadened that view in more recent interviews, and she told NBC News that down-ballot races are key priorities, too.
"Well, the No. 1 job of the RNC is to, of course, support the Republican candidate for president. That is Donald Trump. But of course, we are paying attention to all about down-ballot races, as well," she said.
"The truth is, it's great if we win the presidency, and I think that's imperative, but we also want to expand our lead in the House. We want to take back the Senate. So we are paying very close attention to all those races. We will be supporting [them] in a very big way."
And she added that the RNC "does not support paying [the former president's] legal bills," while she defended a new joint fundraising agreement between the RNC and the former president that will help fund a committee used to pay his legal bills without the RNC’s having to give money itself.
"If you've never had to hire a lawyer, you're doing great stuff, you're in great shape, I'm very happy for you," she said, adding that any Trump donors who don't want their money going to the former president's legal bills can "opt out" and direct their money to the campaign and the party, instead.
Lara Trump also went on to briefly address two key issues dividing Republicans both on the campaign trail and on Capitol Hill.
On abortion, she called the Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal protection for abortion rights and kicked the issue to the states "the most democratic thing,” and she threw cold water on the idea that her father-in-law might support a federal ban around 15 or 16 weeks.
“I think if you asked him now, I think he would say he agrees with allowing the states to decide,” she said.
Donald Trump said last week on WABC radio of New York City that "people are agreeing on 15 [weeks], and I'm thinking in terms of that," though he added later in the interview that "everyone agrees" abortion "shouldn't be a federal issue — it's a state issue."
And about whether to continue to provide funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia, she said that "we take our notes from Donald Trump" but argued that "a lot of Americans are very upset with sending all of our money overseas. We should put every single American first and make sure that we are taking care of our own country first before we consider funding anything overseas."
