The Republican Party is "past" litigating the 2020 election, according to Lara Trump, the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee, in comments coming as her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, is heading to two courts to fight charges alleging that he tried to overturn the results of his last face-off with President Joe Biden.
"The past is the past, and unfortunately, we had to learn a couple of hard lessons in 2020," Lara Trump, who is married to the former president's son, Eric, told NBC News in an interview. "Believe me, we are applying them all across this country in every single state, and we want to ensure that, indeed, every single legal vote is counted."
Donald Trump, the presumptive party nominee, still often refers to claims that the election was stolen or rigged, including last weekend, when he said that the immigrant accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley would not have been in the United States "if the election weren't rigged."
He has also slammed the use of early voting, but Lara Trump said that's changed as well.
"Well, I actually think if you talk to him right now, you will see that he is very much embracing early voting," she said. "[Voters] want to get out and they want to vote for him as soon as they possibly can. If that means Day 1 of early voting for people, he's very happy for them to go out and do it."
Lara Trump was named as the RNC's co-chair this month after former Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and co-chair Drew McKissick stepped aside. The committee is chaired by Michael Whatley, the former North Carolina GOP chairman.
She told NBC that while there may be some wary of her family name, she has also worked on three of his presidential campaigns and has "so much experience."
But initially, she sparked concerns by telling Newsmax before joining the RNC that "every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the RNC — that is electing Donald J. Trump."
But Tuesday, she said that down-party races are also vital, but still said the RNC's priority is to support the Republican nominee for president.
Trump also insisted that the RNC doesn't support paying her father-in-law's legal bills, but she did defend a joint fundraising agreement between him and the RNC to fund a committee that would be used to pay his legal bills without the RNC needing to give him money directly.
Donors, though, can "opt out" of paying his legal fees, she said.
Meanwhile, Trump, also appearing on Sirius XM's "The David Webb Show", said that the changes at the RNC, including letting several staffers go, has restructured the organization to better help her father-in-law's campaign.
"We want to spend every penny of the money that is donated to the RNC in the best possible way," she said. "We are making sure that every penny of every dollar is spent on the cause that people care about. Obviously, that is Donald Trump at the top of the ticket … there was never a fully cohesive bond between the Trump campaign and the RNC in the past, and we are now operating as one entity."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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