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Jimmy Williams
In a notable departure from his usual rhetoric, former President Donald Trump acknowledged that he lost the 2020 presidential election during an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman. In the podcast episode released on Tuesday, Trump candidly admitted, “I lost by a whisker,” referring to his 2020 defeat to current President Joe Biden.
The conversation initially focused on Trump’s preparation for the upcoming debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. When asked by Fridman about his expectations for the debate, Trump responded by reflecting on his past debate experiences, saying, “I’ve done a lot of debating … I’ve done well with debates.” However, he soon veered off topic, discussing the number of votes he garnered in 2020.
“I became president. Then the second time I got millions more votes than I got the first time,” Trump said. “I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, ‘You would win. You can’t not win.’ And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker.”
Trump secured around 74 million votes in 2020, but Biden surpassed him with approximately 81 million votes, ultimately securing the presidency. Despite this admission, Trump quickly returned to his longstanding narrative, asserting that the election was fraudulent. “I think the election was a fraud, and many people felt it was that, and they wanted answers,” Trump told Fridman.
This acknowledgement marks a contrast to Trump’s typical claims about the 2020 election, which he has frequently described as “rigged.” In the aftermath of the election, Trump and his legal team mounted numerous challenges in swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, though none were successful in overturning the results.
Trump is now facing federal felony charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A federal grand jury recently returned an indictment accusing him of knowingly spreading false claims about the election and attempting to interfere with the certification of results. Trump is expected to plead not guilty to the charges during an upcoming hearing.
In addition to the federal charges, Trump is also facing criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia, related to his attempts to reverse the state’s election outcome.
With the 2024 presidential election on the horizon, Republicans have already initiated pre-election lawsuits in battleground states. Lawsuits in Michigan and North Carolina, for instance, focus on issues such as the appointment of GOP poll workers and voter rolls. Democrats caution that these legal maneuvers could serve as groundwork for sowing doubt if Trump loses again in 2024.
As Trump prepares for his next debate and continues his campaign for the presidency, his rare admission of loss in 2020 contrasts with his ongoing claims of fraud—keeping the divisive conversation about the integrity of U.S. elections in the spotlight.
