“President Trump has denounced what happened, and I think everyone should have been unequivocal in their charges against what happened, not only on January 6 but during the summer when they were burning cities down,” said Scalise.
“You saw the left denouncing January 6, as we did. They have not charged what happened over the summer, ”he claimed. “So let’s be across the board and say that anyone who resorts to violence to settle political disputes has no place for that in America and it should be unequivocally disputed.”
Scalise’s claims came in response to a question from host Jon Karl about the Republican whip’s visit with Trump this weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Karl asked if Scalise accepted Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election as legitimate. The former president repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the election, claiming without evidence that there was widespread fraud that led to his defeat.
“Yes, he’s the legitimate president,” Scalise admitted to Biden. “But if you’re going to ignore the fact that there were states that didn’t follow their own state laws, that’s the crux of the problem, that millions of people are still not happy about it and don’t want to see it again.”
One argument advanced by the president’s attorneys in some states was that pandemic-induced changes in voting procedures were made without the approval of the state legislature.
Scalise said many Americans were concerned about whether those changes would carry over into the next election.
“I think that’s the biggest frustration a lot of people have: the states that didn’t follow the law, will they continue to do so in the future, or are we finally going back to what the constitution dictates for choosing our leaders?” He said.