Don Bolduc was blasted by just about everyone yesterday after he tried, and spectacularly failed, to erase his long record of spreading the Big Lie.
Bolduc has spent the past year and a half repeatedly spreading lies about the 2020 election. He has even said he would work to overturn the results of the 2024 election if he disagrees with them.
Yesterday morning on Fox News, he desperately attempted to rewrite his record. The problem? There are receipts… and lots of them.
Read the pushback below:
Former U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock @BarbaraComstock: Don Bolduc said Trump won the 2020 election and it was stolen to get the nomination and now he flips on a dime and says the opposite. So first thing you know is he’s a liar and unfit.” [9/15/22, 3:57 PM]
Columnist Michael Cohen @speechboy71: Bolduc actually has the chutzpah to present his complete 180 on the 2020 election as if it’s an act of principle … when it’s clearly a cynical political ploy.” [9/15/11, 1:15 PM]
NPR Washington Editor Ben Swasey @benswasey: Bolduc, last month, during a debate: “I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by [it].” [11:47 AM, 9/15/22]
CNN National Political Reporter Dan Merica @merica: Bolduc during an August 14 debate: “So I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Trump won the election and dammit, I stand by my letter. I’m not switching horses, baby. This is it. [9/15/22, 11:44 AM]
CNN: New Hampshire GOP Senate nominee abruptly backs off false 2020 election claims
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New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc won the Republican nomination on Tuesday after months campaigning on false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
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[…]As recently as last month, when during a primary debate he doubled down on his past false assertions. “I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by [it],” Bolduc said during the mid-August debate.
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Bolduc, though, has long been an exponent of Trump’s lies. In an interview with the New Yorker published in October 2021, he defended his decision to sign on to the letter that said Trump was the 2020 winner and insisted that his rigged election and fraud claims were sincere. “I very much believe it and I think it exists, and I think it happens and it’s been happening for a long time in this country. When you try to steal the Presidency, a lot of people are going to go, ‘OK, wait a minute. What the hell’s going on here?,'” Bolduc said at the time.
New York Times: Right After Primary Win, Bolduc Reverses Support for Election Lies
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Like a driver making a screeching U-turn, Don Bolduc, the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, pivoted on Thursday from his primary race to the general election, saying he had “come to the conclusion” that the 2020 presidential election “was not stolen,” after he had spent more than a year claiming it was.
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Among other instances, in May 2021, he signed an open letter in which retired generals and admirals advanced false claims that the election had been tainted. “The F.B.I. and Supreme Court must act swiftly when election irregularities are surfaced and not ignore them as was done in 2020,” it said. In a debate with his Republican primary opponents last month, he referred back to that letter and declared, to applause, that he would not budge from his position.
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“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Trump won the election, and, damn it, I stand by my letter,” he said. “I’m not switching horses, baby. This is it.” Switching horses on Thursday, he said in the Fox News interview, “We, you know, live and learn, right?”
NHPR: Bolduc abandons false claims of stolen election, days after GOP Senate primary win
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Bolduc has repeatedly – as recently as last month – told voters he believed Donald Trump was the rightful winner of that election.
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Bolduc has made repeated claims that the 2020 election was stolen over the course of his Senate campaign. In May of 2021, Bolduc was among 125 former top military officials who signed a letter suggesting the 2020 election was stolen.
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“The FBI and Supreme Court must act swiftly when election irregularities are surfaced and not ignore them as was done in 2020,” the letter said. “Without fair and honest elections that accurately reflect the ‘will of the people’ our Constitutional Republic is lost.”
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Last month, during two separate debates, Bolduc reaffirmed his support for the letter and its claims.
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“I signed a letter with 120 other Generals and Admirals, saying that Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by my oath,” Bolduc said to a cheering crowd at a debate hosted by the far right Government Integrity Project. “I’m not switching horses, baby.”
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Two days later, Bolduc made a similar claim during a debate on Binnie Media’s Good Morning New Hampshire.
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“I will tell you that I signed a letter with 124 admirals and generals that stipulated, I believed, that the election had fraud and that I concurred with President Trump’s assessment of it. And I do not change my mind on that.” Bolduc stated.
CNN: The astounding flip-flop of an election denier
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Before Don Bolduc won the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, he made no bones about it: He thought the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.
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Which makes what Bolduc, now the party’s nominee in the race, said on Thursday morning all the more remarkable.
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Which is pretty amazing timing, right? Bolduc’s research into the 2020 election concluded just as the Republican primary was ending. And his conclusion – that Biden actually won just so happens to come as he is trying to pivot from winning over GOP primary voters – many of whom believe, as Trump does, that the 2020 election was rigged – to appealing to more centrist voters in a general election who, well, don’t.
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It’s worth noting here that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
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Other Republican candidates have tried to make similar shifts in their rhetoric around hot-button issues after winning their primaries…But none have so completely reversed themselves – and done so in such rapid fashion – on an issue as Bolduc.
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That he had the gall to try it – and to do so less than 48 hours after winning a primary due in large part to his adherence to the tenets of Trumpism – speaks to the almost-impossible tight rope that Republican candidates are being forced to walk.
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The Point: Bolduc’s abrupt u-turn is about as inartful as you can pivot from a core “belief” on which you based a campaign up until now.