Former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he didn’t respect his campaign and White House lawyers who said he lost the 2020 election, continuing to claim the results were fraudulent.
Trump shared his thoughts during an interview on “Meet the Press,” which aired Sunday after he was asked about why he ignored his lawyers’ advice following the election. Trump said he “didn’t respect” his lawyers, who told him he lost the election.
“You hire them, you never met these people, you get a recommendation, they turn out to be RINOs, or they turn out to be not so good,” Trump said. “In many cases, I didn’t respect them. But I did respect others; I respected many others that said the election was rigged.”
The former president said that his decision to go against his lawyer and push stolen election claims instead was a combination of outside advice and his own instincts.
“You know who I listen to? Myself. I saw what happened. I watched that election, and I thought that election was over at 10 o’clock in the evening,” Trump said.
He continued, saying that after listening to different people, he “added it all up” and came to the decision that “the election was rigged.”
When it comes to whether Trump or someone else was calling the shots about pushing stolen election claims, the president said it was both.
“As to whether or not I believed it was rigged? Oh sure, it was my decision. But I listened to some people. Some people said that,” Trump said.
Trump is currently facing two separate indictments related to his efforts to overturn the election, one in Fulton County, Georgia, and another brought by federal investigators.