Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said “let’s move on” from questioning the 2020 election results in response to former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric at his rally in Ohio on Saturday evening.
In his first rally since leaving the White House, Trump continued the narrative that the election was rigged, at one point calling it the “scam of the century.”
Romney said Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” that it’s important “to make clear that the big lie is exactly that.”
He added that there is an increasing understanding in the country that this messaging is like the World Wrestling Federation — what is now the World Wrestling Entertainment. “It’s entertaining, but it’s not real,” he said.
“I think people recognize it’s a lot of show and bombast but it’s going nowhere. The election is over. It was fair,” he said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said that Trump’s rally rhetoric isn’t concerning to him.
“If Republicans focus on doing what is right … future politics will take care of themselves,” Cassidy said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Good policy is good politics. Let’s stick to the good policy and this is good policy.”
Resurrecting an old Cold War argument, Romney also noted that the messaging does have serious implications internationally.
“There is a battle going on in the world right now, between the autocratic nations like China and Russia, and nations that believe in democracy,” he said.
“If the autocratic nations can point to the United States, which is the birthplace of this modern democracy, and can say, ‘Look, they can’t even run an election there that is not fraudulent, how can you possibly run it in your country?’ That is, obviously, having an impact on the cause of democracy and freedom around the world.”