Adam Laxalt goes on Steve Bannon’s podcast ‘War Room,’ calls ‘election integrity’ biggest issue

The Republican frontrunner in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race characterized widespread voter fraud as “the hottest topic” of his campaign during a recent interview with Steve Bannon.

“We need an election integrity plan. We’re putting that together now,” Adam Laxalt said during a Wednesday guest appearance on Bannon’s talk show “War Room.”

Read more:Ex-police union leader slams Adam Laxalt for ‘fundraising off the Big Lie’

In the interview, Bannon called Nevada the “professional” vote-stealer, asking Laxalt how he will prevent the state from stealing “a Senate seat from us.”

“As you know, this is the hottest topic we have, and there’s a lot of groups that have raised a ton of money,” Laxalt responded. “And so my job over the next few months is to figure out which is the best group to work with.”

Laxalt’s comments come amid backlash over his campaign profiting off of unfounded claims of a “stolen” 2020 presidential election — allegations that led a mob of angry Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol last January.

Bannon, a former advisor to President Donald Trump, was indicted in November by a federal grand jury, charged with contempt of Congress after refusing to answer questions from the House Committee investigating the Capitol riot.

In a letter sent last week to Laxalt’s campaign, Rick McCann, a recently retired Nevada police union leader, called on the Republican candidate “to immediately donate all proceeds from these campaign solicitations to the U.S. Capitol Police Memorial Fund,” which supports the families of officers killed in the line of duty.

Laxalt, who hopes to unseat Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in November, has raised about $1.4 million, according to campaign finance reports.

“It is a failure of leadership to repeat these lies, and worse to use them to fund your political campaign,” wrote McCann, who led the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers.

During the 2020 presidential election, Laxalt and American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp called a news conference alleging widespread voter fraud in Nevada. Laxalt co-chaired Trump’s Nevada campaign, which filed lawsuits in state and federal courts questioning the integrity of Nevada’s general election, but those legal challenges failed.

Rio Lacanlale writes about Las Vegas for the Reno Gazette Journal, part of the USA Today Network. Contact her at rlacanlale@gannett.com and follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Support her work by subscribing today.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Reno Gazette Journal can be found here ***