Donald Trump acknowledged that he lost the 2020 election following a Christmas reception, according to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, and she said the former chief of staff could attest to the same thing.
The former president pushed his attorneys, Republican lawmakers, state legislators and other allies to overturn his election loss based on baseless fraud claims, but Hutchinson told the House select committee that Trump knew he lost after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed a Texas lawsuit challenging his loss.
"The president is just raging about the decision and how it's wrong, and why didn't we make more calls, and, you know, just his typical anger outburst at this decision," Cassidy told lawmakers.
Meadows assured the former president that he had "other options" and promised to "figure this out," but didn't specify any course of action, according to Hutchinson, who said Trump didn't sound too confident those efforts would work.
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"I don't want people to know we lost, Mark," Trump said, according to Hutchinson. "This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don't want people to know we lost."
After that conversation, Hutchinson asked Meadows whether Trump acknowledged his defeat often.
"Ugh, Cass, it just depends on his moods," Meadows said, according to Hutchinson. "Like, he's real mad about this right now."
Meadows later admitted to Cassidy that he agreed that Trump had lost, shortly after the former president had called Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, and asked him to find just enough votes to overturn his election loss, but state officials refused.
"He knows it's over," Meadows said, according to Hutchinson. "He knows he lost. But we're going to keep trying. There's a chance he didn't. I want to pull this off for him."