Romney: Most Americans know Trump’s election fraud claims are ‘not real’

“I do think it’s important for each person to speak the truth and to make clear that the ‘big lie’ is exactly that,” Romney said. “I can tell you that it is surely being used around the world to minimize the support for democracy. I mean, there’s a battle going on in the world right now between the autocratic nations like China and Russia and nations that believe in democracy. And if the autocratic nations can point to the United States, which is the birthplace, really, of this modern democracy, and can say, ‘Look, they can’t even run an election there that’s not fraudulent, how can you possibly run it in your country?,’ that obviously is having an impact on the cause of democracy and freedom around the world.”

Romney added that “here in the U.S., there’s a growing recognition that this is a bit like WWF (World Wrestling Federation), that it’s entertaining, but it’s not real.”

“And I know people want to say, ‘Yeah, they (Trump supporters) believe in the ‘big lie’ in some cases. But I think people recognize that it’s a lot of show and bombast, but it’s going nowhere. The election is over, it was fair,” he said.

The Utah Republican also pointed out that Trump “was crying foul on election night, and actually before election night,” and questioned where he was getting his information.

“Where did he hear that the election had been fraudulently carried out?” asked Romney. “Did he hear it from the Justice Department? No. Did he hear it from the intelligence community? No. So where did he hear it from? The MyPillow guy? Rudy Giuliani? What were their sources of information? I mean, it’s pretty clear the election was fair. It wasn’t the outcome that the president wanted, but let’s move on.”

Despite Romney’s assertion that most people see Trump’s false election fraud claims as political theater, there is growing evidence that many Republicans believe them.

A Reuters and Ipsos poll from March found that six in 10 Republicans in the U.S. believe that the presidential election “was stolen” from Trump due to widespread voter fraud. The same poll found that only three in 10 Republicans agree that Trump bears some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, also has called on Republicans to acknowledge that President Joe Biden is in office “legitimately,” while other Utah Republicans, including Reps. Burgess Owens and Chris Stewart and Attorney General Sean Reyes, have echoed Trump’s claims.