New audio from former President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin campaign clearly proves that, like Trump himself and his nightmare team of MAGA cronies, they knew the man had lost in 2020 but continued to push a fake voter fraud conspiracy.
The audio, obtained by the Associated Press (AP), is from Nov. 4, 2020, and emerged as Trump relaunches his third presidential run for 2024. The twice-impeached former president continues to further the narrative that he only lost to President Joe Biden because the election in 2020 was rigged.
The audio is primarily of Andrew Iverson speaking. Iverson led Trump’s efforts in the state and can be heard joking about the team’s pathetic reach to Black voters, admissions that they’d lost but did the best they could, and a plan to “fan the flame” about a stolen election.
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“Here’s the deal: Comms is going to continue to fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election. We’ll do whatever they need. Just be on standby if there’s any stunts we need to pull,” Iverson said.
The AP reports that Iverson now works as the Midwest regional director for the RNC.
After a win in 2016, Trump lost to Biden in Wisconsin, a swing state, in 2020 by nearly 21,000 votes and then promptly made plans for a recount.
Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, said in a statement, “Reports of irregularities in several counties, Wisconsin counties … raise serious doubts about the validity of the results.”
Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s chief election official in 2020, defended elections in her state, despite the ongoing claims by Trump that he lost due to issues with voting.
“There is no opportunity to count a ballot that did not go through [the state’s] incredibly meticulous process to make sure ballots are issued and counted correctly,” she said.
“I think it’s insulting to our local election officials to say that … yesterday’s election was anything but an incredible success and the result of years of preparation and meticulously, carefully following the law.”
Within Trump’s Wisconsin campaign camp, there was little discussion of him having won. Instead, the audio shows discussions mainly centered around closing down campaign offices, filing reports summarizing efforts, and even Iverson praising Republicans in the state for doing as well as they did.
“At the end of the day, this operation received more votes than any other Republican in Wisconsin history,” Iverson said, according to the AP. “Say what you want, our operation turned out Republican or DJT supporters. Democrats have got 20,000 more than us out of Dane County and other shenanigans in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Dane. There’s a lot that people can learn from this campaign.”
The audio is more evidence that what Trump operatives knew to be reality privately was wholly disconnected from the lies they continued to perpetuate publicly.
The audio recordings additionally show how admittedly out of touch the campaign was with the Black community in Wisconsin.
The team joked about needing “more Black voices for Trump,” but Iverson can be heard saying, “We ever talk to Black people before? I don’t think so,” resulting in raucous laughs from the team.
Pew Research reported that Black, Hispanic, Asian voters, and those of other races cast about 4 in 10 votes for Biden, with 92% of Black voters supporting Biden.
So far, Trump’s latest campaign continues to hinge on election fraud in 2020. A report from the watchdog group Accountable Tech found more than 230 posts on his Truth Social platform “containing harmful election-related disinformation.” Let’s face it: No matter the outcome of lawsuits and repeated investigations into various states' voting systems, this guy isn’t giving up on the fact that he lost because he’s a loser and Americans wanted someone else. As we know, his hubris is too great.
On this episode of The Downballot, don't miss a special double-guest episode. Hear from Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United, as she discusses the group's efforts to roll back the corrupting effects of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and their plans for campaign finance reform. Then, law professor Quinn Yeargain joins to discuss the surprising setback Gov. Kathy Hochul faced in the state capitol and what it means for the future of New York's top court.
