The former coward in Chief has another meltdown. He is by far the
weakest, stupidest living fool in America!

Pressed on his election lies, former President Trump cuts NPR interview
short.

Some Republican leaders are trying to move on from former President Donald
Trump's failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election that he lost.

"While there were some irregularities, there were none of the
irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would have
changed the vote outcome in a single state," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.,
said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "The election was fair, as fair as we have
seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the
presidency. And if we simply look back and tell our people don't vote
because there's cheating going on, then we're going to put ourselves in a
huge disadvantage."

But Trump � who has endorsed dozens of candidates for the 2022 midterm
elections and still holds by far the widest influence within the GOP � is
trying hard not to let them move on.

"No, I think it's an advantage, because otherwise they're going to do it
again in '22 and '24, and Rounds is wrong on that. Totally wrong," Trump
told NPR in an interview Tuesday, referring to his false and debunked
claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
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The interview was six years in the making. Trump and his team have
repeatedly declined interviews with NPR until Tuesday, when he called in
from his home in Florida. It was scheduled for 15 minutes, but lasted just
over nine.

After being pressed about his repeated lies about the 2020 presidential
election, Trump abruptly ended the interview.
Read NPR's full interview with former President Donald Trump
Politics
Read NPR's full interview with former President Donald Trump
Trump's mixed messages on getting vaccinated

The interview began with the pandemic and vaccinations.

Trump, whose administration oversaw the development of the COVID-19
vaccines, recommended that people get vaccinated but said he's firmly
against mandating that they do so.

"[T]he mandate is really hurting our country," Trump claimed, adding, "A
lot of Americans aren't standing for it, and it's hurting our country."

He continued, "The vaccines, I recommend taking them, but I think that has
to be an individual choice. I mean, it's got to be individual, but I
recommend taking them."

The opposition to mandates is popular with Republicans, and the Supreme
Court is currently weighing the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test
mandate for large employers. But his comments come during the record
omicron surge, as the unvaccinated are far more likely to be hospitalized
or die from the disease, and as Republicans are far more likely to be
unvaccinated.
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Epidemiologists and health experts warn that if more people don't get
vaccinated and the virus continues to morph, it could prolong the pandemic
� and delay any sense of getting back to normal.

The former president said he wants to see therapeutics, used to treat the
virus after someone is infected, produced and distributed more widely.
U.S. COVID hospitalizations hit new record high, raising risks for
patients
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U.S. COVID hospitalizations hit new record high, raising risks for
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A guide to COVID tests: When to test, what kind to use and what your
results mean
Shots - Health News
A guide to COVID tests: When to test, what kind to use and what your
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Trump's firm grip on the Republican Party, but tenuous grasp on reality

Trump is not just any former president.

Even many members of his own party have blamed him for inciting the deadly
Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but since then Trump has only
tightened his grip on the GOP.

He remains one of the most popular figures in the Republican Party and is
considered the front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination, if he
decides to run again.

When he ran in 2016, Trump was seen as having a shoestring campaign,
fighting an uphill battle with few allies among Republican elected
leaders.

Today, it's a different story. Trump's political organization has become a
juggernaut. Not only are most Republican elected leaders falling in line,
but he has also installed allies controlling many levers of political
power across the country. In state after state, Trump allies are running
local Republican parties, serving as state representatives and in charge
of political action committees.

It's a political army ready to be mobilized at his beck and call. What he
says � what his message is to them � matters because they follow.
Imagine another American Civil War, but this time in every state
Politics
Imagine another American Civil War, but this time in every state

To secure his power, he will do whatever he can to cast aside those who
don't show fealty. That includes threats, bullying and intimidation, like
badgering and name-calling.

Referring to South Dakota's Rounds in a statement after he appeared on
ABC, for example, Trump said Rounds "just went woke," called him a
"jerk," "weak," "ineffective" and questioned whether he was "crazy or just
stupid."

He also called him a RINO, an acronym for an insult some conservatives
reserve for more moderate Republicans they disagree with � Republicans in
name only.

In the interview with NPR, he partially blamed Senate Republican leader
Mitch McConnell for Rounds and other senators feeling as though they can
speak out and say � correctly � that Trump lost the election.

"Because Mitch McConnell is a loser," Trump said.

Trump has called McConnell worse � and all because the Kentucky Republican
has crossed Trump, blaming him for the insurrection on Jan. 6 and saying
President Biden won, even if McConnell doesn't do so forcefully every day.

It's par for the course for Trump, who has demanded unflinching loyalty �
and who chafes at truths he disagrees with, especially about him losing.

Trump has blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, all because the
Kentucky Republican has crossed the former president.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Won't accept losing an election he lost

Many Republicans prefer to focus on Biden as this year's congressional
elections approach. Trump is pressing candidates in a different direction.

Josh Mandel, a pro-Trump Republican from Ohio, launched his campaign for
U.S. Senate just weeks after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol
last year.

"I think over time we're gonna see studies come out that [show] evidence
of widespread fraud," Mandel, a former state treasurer who is angling for
Trump's endorsement, told WKYC-TV.

In the year since Mandel made that prediction, the opposite has happened.

Even more evidence shows a free and fair election.

In one disputed state, Arizona, Trump allies held a widely criticized
review of millions of ballots, but even Doug Logan, who led Cyber Ninjas,
the firm that ran the review, couldn't find much.

"The ballots that were provided to us to count in the Coliseum very
accurately correlate with the official canvass numbers," Logan said.

As he does with any information or person he doesn't like or disagrees
with, Trump dismissed the findings in the NPR interview.
"Lying or delusional"

In the interview, Trump repeated a number of false claims about voting
systems in the U.S., including that the discredited GOP-led ballot review
in Arizona showed evidence of malfeasance � despite the fact that it also
reaffirmed Biden's victory.

Republican officials in Maricopa County, however, debunked the
characterizations of Trump and his allies in a 93-page rebuttal issued
last week.

"The people who have spent the last year proclaiming our free and fair
elections are rigged are lying or delusional," said Bill Gates, the GOP
chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Asked why even Republicans in the state accepted the findings, Trump
reverted to an old attack.

"Because they're RINOs," he said, "and frankly, a lot of people are
questioning that."
Congress may change this arcane law to avoid another Jan. 6
Elections
Congress may change this arcane law to avoid another Jan. 6
Here's where election-denying candidates are running to control voting
Elections
Here's where election-denying candidates are running to control voting

Tammy Patrick, a former Maricopa County election official and now an
elections expert at Democracy Fund, was presented by NPR with a number of
Trump's claims about voting and noted that in the 14 months since the
election, no proof of any of his claims has come to light.

"It hasn't been presented in any of the courts. It hasn't been surfaced in
any official election audits, not by the Department of Justice, not by the
FBI," Patrick said. "Allegations of fraud hinge upon being able to produce
actual instances of fraud � not merely thoughts, feelings or beliefs about
it."