Trump budget nominee tells senators 2020 election was ‘rigged’
Russell Vought, President Trump’s pick to head the White House budget office, told senators in his confirmation questionnaire that he believes the 2020 presidential election was “rigged.”
Asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in written questions for the record whether former President Biden won the 2020 election, Vought responded, “I believe that the 2020 election was rigged.”
A copy of his written answers was obtained by The Hill.
Vought’s assertion that Biden only won by means of fraud will spark more fireworks over his nomination, which the Senate Budget Committee will consider Thursday.
Many Senate Republicans have rejected Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, including former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).
Speaking on the Senate floor after Trump’s second impeachment trial, McConnell called the stolen election claims “wild falsehoods.”
Senate Democrats have already demanded that Republicans postpone a vote on Vought for two weeks after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo Monday night freezing broad swaths of federal funding.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said Democrats will join a lawsuit challenging the funding freeze, which a federal judge paused on Tuesday afternoon.
He called Vought the “chief cook and bottle washer” of Project 2025, the ambitious conservative blueprint for reforming the federal government, which Trump distanced himself from during last year’s campaign.
Whitehouse in his questions for the record asked Vought about his leadership of the Center for Renewing America (CRA), a 501(c)3 organization that paid him $540,000 in compensation last year.
The Rhode Island senator pressed Vought on the group’s donors, asking the nominee how OMB’s recusal and conflict of interest policies could be effective if he doesn’t disclose that information.
Vought responded that CRA is not obligated to share its donors and asserted he has fully complied with the Office of Government Ethics and OMB’s ethics attorneys.
The nominee also skirted Whitehouse’s questions about whether he discussed any of the executive orders issued by Trump in the past week with either the president or members of his team.
Vought responded that Trump decided the policies contained in his executive orders and vowed to “faithfully implement the president’s policies.”
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