Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that she believed former President Donald Trump “knew he lost” the 2020 election and tried a variety of ways to stay in power.
Lofgren said, “Obviously what happened after this tumultuous meeting, the ex-president issued his now famous tweet, ‘Come on January 6, it will be wild.’ That was summoning the mob. We heard from many of the rioters, that they felt the president had asked them personally to come to Washington. That was the final effort that the president was able to make to stop the election from being certified through mob violence.”
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “So, if what I’m hearing is right, you’re suggesting that maybe what the significance of that meeting legally is that’s when Trump realized the only method left for him to still get power was if not through Mike Pence, who already signaled he wasn’t but to overturn the election, then the mob. Is that possibly what’s going on?”
Lofgren said, “Certainly he made additional efforts to corrupt the Department of Justice subsequent to that tweet, but in the end he wanted to stay in power. We proved that through our investigation. He tried a variety of ways to say achieve that goal, even though he lost, and he knew he lost. The mob violence was the final effort to stay in power.”
She added, “The ex-president was at the center of this scheme to hold power contrary to the law.”
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