Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:34 pm
In an interview with CBC’s “Squawk Box,” former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to say that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, appearing to back former President Donald Trump‘s falsehoods.
Asked whether he believes claims that the election was stolen are lies, Mnuchin said, “Let me just say I was very involved in the campaign in 2016 and I traveled with the president across the country and was intimately involved in everything.”
“In 2020, I wasn’t able to participate in the campaign and I was focused on a massive amount of work in Covid so I’m really just watching this from the outside,” he added.
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Asked again if “it’s a lie to say that the election was stolen,” Mnuchin dodged the question.
“What I’m focused on are our investments, our business, our government going forward. I think the president’s policies were extraordinary in Covid, whether it’s the vaccines or other issues. All the work we did under Covid, the bipartisan support we had to get the economy recovered.”
When Former President Donald Trump says the election in November was stolen do you believe that was a lie?
. @EamonJavers asks @stevenmnuchin1: pic.twitter.com/RNMlPiDsDV— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) July 14, 2021
Mnuchin’s interview came one day after President Joe Biden excoriated Trump’s “big lie” in his voting rights address.
“It’s clear, for those who challenge the results or question the integrity of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny or such high standards. ‘The big lie’ is just that, a big lie,†Biden said at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
“In America, if you lose, you accept the results,†Biden continued. “You follow the Constitution, you try again. You don’t call facts ‘fake’ and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship, that’s selfishness.”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
