Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Sunday on CBS News' Face the Nation that it's "really sad" President-elect Donald Trump continues to claim he won the 2020 election and that he should instead be "triumphant" about his 2024 election victory.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's press team for comment via email on Sunday.
Why It Matters
Representative Pelosi has long been a leading critic of Trump. She led the House during part of Trump's first administration, and was in the leadership role when the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot occurred after Trump lost the 2020 election.
The president-elect continues to claim he won the 2020 election against President Joe Biden, citing widespread voter fraud for him losing, despite providing no evidence to back up his claims.
Trump never met with Biden before the 2020 presidential transition, continuing to dispute the results and delaying initial access to briefings. A total of 147 Republican lawmakers voted to overturn the 2020 election.
In November 2024, Trump won the presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris. The results are set to be certified on January 6, with no Democratic lawmaker expected to overturn the results.
What To Know
Monday marks four years since thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in an effort to stop the certification of Biden's electoral victory. Rioters breached security and were able to get onto the House floor and invade many elected officials' office spaces, including Pelosi's.
Trump was impeached by the House for "incitement of insurrection," but the measure failed to reach the two-thirds majority required for conviction in the Senate.
When Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked Pelosi on Sunday why "so many Americans decided that Donald Trump's support for the rioters in 2020 should not disqualify him from a second term as president," Pelosi pointed to economic factors as the likely reason for support for Trump in the 2024 election, in which he won the popular vote and the Electoral College.
"I don't call this a disregard of January 6, I just call it something that they saw in their interest, economically," Pelosi said.
Despite having won office again, Trump continues to claim he won in 2020. Brennan reported that Trump, at Mar-a-Lago on January 4, played segments of a documentary featuring conservative lawyer John Eastman, a supporter of the "Stop the Steal" movement.
Pelosi said that "it's really sad" that Trump continues to claim that he won.
She added: "It's almost sick that he would be thinking that in 2020. He's won the election now, that will be clear...and tomorrow he will be, clearly, will be accepting the results of the Electoral College, so he should be triumphant about that—but to be still trying to fight a fight that he knows he lost, is really sad."
Trump has pledged he will pardon rioters once he takes office on January 20.
Over 1,500 people have been charged with crimes connected to the riot, and over 1,000 of them have been convicted and sentenced. Of those that have received sentences, about two-thirds got prison time ranging from a few days to 22 years.
What People Are Saying
Former U.S. Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell told the Washington Post that Trump's pledge to pardon rioters: "It's a betrayal, a stab in the heart."
Former GOP Representative Liz Cheney, a Trump critic, wrote about Trump in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Friday: "You can't change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember. And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic—to protect the America we love from you."
President-elect Donald Trump in a December appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press: "I'm going to be acting very quickly [pardoning January 6 rioters]...First day...They've been in there for years, and they're in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn't even be allowed to be open."
What Happens Next
Harris, who was the Democratic presidential nominee for nearly 100 days after Biden stepped down from the race, will preside over the joint congressional session certifying the results. Four years ago, Vice President Mike Pence broke with Trump by certifying the results.
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