Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a rally endorsing Republican candidates Adam Laxalt and Joe Lombardo (not pictured) July 8, 2022, in Las Vegas.
Ronda Churchill | AFP | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump this month called Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and urged him to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in that state, Vos said in a new interview Tuesday.
“It’s very consistent. He makes his case, which I respect,” Vos told WISN-TV 12 News in Milwaukee.
“He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained that it’s not allowed under the Constitution,” Vos said.
“He has a different opinion.”
The Republican lawmaker said in the same interview that Trump on July 9 posted a message on Truth Social, his social media platform, calling on the Wisconsin legislature to “turn over the election to the actual winner,” by recalling the state’s slate of 10 Electoral College delegates, who cast their votes for Biden.
Vos has consistently said that his state’s legislature does not have the authority to rescind the votes of a slate of electors despite claims by some GOP lawmakers that it does.
One of those Republicans, state Rep. Timothy Ramthun, submitted a resolution calling on the state legislature to “reclaim” those electors.
Biden defeated Trump by a margin of 49.4% to 48.8%, or fewer than 21,000 votes, in Wisconsin.
Vos’s interview comes two days before Thursday’s scheduled public hearing of the U.S. House select committee that is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by a mob of Trump supporters.
The incident began after Trump falsely claimed for weeks that he had actually won the 2020 election, and that Biden’s victory was based on ballot fraud. The riot interrupted for hours the certification of Biden’s Electoral College win by a joint session of Congress.
Biden defeated Trump by a margin of 306 to 232 votes in the Electoral College.
A special grand jury in Georgia is collecting evidence and testimony as part of an investigation into whether Trump and his allies committed crimes in their effort to get officials there to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in that state.
Nearly two weeks ago, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court barred the use of drop-off boxes outside election offices for absentee ballots in upcoming elections. Such ballots either must be mailed in or delivered directly to a local election office, according to the ruling.
Trump has claimed, without evidence, that such drop boxes were used in Wisconsin to fraudulently swing the election to Biden.
After speaking with Vos, Trump posted a message on Truth Social that called the speaker “a long time professional RINO” — Republican in Name Only — “always looking to guard his flank,” who “will be doing nothing about the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision.”
“The Democrats would like to sincerely thank Robin, and all of his fellow RINOs, for letting them get away with ‘murder.’ A Rigged & Stolen Election!” Trump wrote.