As former president Donald Trump seeks a return to the White House, he is promoting false claims about the 2020 election, championing violent offenders who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and refusing to commit to abiding by the results of the 2024 presidential election.
What about the rest of the presidential field?
The Washington Post sent a questionnaire to the campaigns of 15 candidates. Ten answered. The Post also reviewed past comments for the whole field. The results show how the GOP still struggles to clearly answer what have long been basic assumptions of democracy, with candidates and campaigns in some cases offering muddled responses, shifting positions or dodging straightforward questions.
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The Post found that three Republican candidates do not acknowledge Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. Most candidates do — even while some continue to make unfounded claims about problems in the vote.
For instance, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that “of course” Trump lost. But he has also criticized the administration of the election, saying it was not “conducted the way I think that we want.”
Only nine of the 15 candidates have affirmatively committed to accepting the results of the next election.
And six candidates have said they would consider pardoning people charged with crimes related to their activities on Jan. 6.
The Post sought answers from the candidates to these three questions:
Below are the findings:
Donald Trump
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Trump has long said he does not believe Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election and waged attempts to overturn his defeat. In response to the questionnaire, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung referred The Post to a May CNN town hall, in which Trump repeated his false claim of “a rigged election.” Trump faces federal and state criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in federal court and is facing a Friday deadline to surrender in Fulton County, Ga.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Trump has not committed to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election. Cheung referred The Post to the CNN town hall, at which Trump offered a conditional response, saying, “Yes, if I think it’s an honest election, absolutely, I would.” Trump’s refusal to accept the certified results of the upcoming election echo his refusals in 2016 and in 2020 to say he would accept certified election results.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Trump has often championed the cause of people convicted or charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. At the same CNN town hall Trump said, “I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control.”
In September 2022 he told a radio host he would give convicted Jan. 6 rioters “full pardons with an apology to many.” Then, in a video released in December, Trump told viewers, “People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
Ron DeSantis
1. 2020 election legitimacy
DeSantis recently gave his most definitive public remarks in early August, telling NBC News of Trump, “No, of course, he lost. Of course. Joe Biden’s the president.” He had long dodged the question, and his campaign did not respond to the questionnaire.
Still, DeSantis qualified his remarks by suggesting that the 2020 race was not “the perfect election.” In June 2022, DeSantis was asked whether Biden was “duly and legally elected.” DeSantis said, “I’ve been asked that a hundred different times” and did not answer the question.
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2. Accepting the 2024 election results
DeSantis did not respond to The Post’s question about whether he would accept the certified results of the 2024 election. He does not appear to have publicly answered the question.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
DeSantis has suggested that he would consider pardoning Trump and people convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 attack. Asked about pardoning both Trump (if he is convicted) and Jan. 6 defendants on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show”in May, DeSantis said, “What I’m going to do is — I’m going to do on Day One — I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who are people who are victims of weaponization or political targeting, and we will be aggressive at issuing pardons. Now, some of these cases, some people may have a technical violation of the law.”
Doug Burgum
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Burgum said in a May interview with The Post that “Yes,” Biden won the election.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
In response to The Post questionnaire, Burgum campaign spokesman Lance Trover did not directly address the governor’s position on the question, providing a brief comment saying, “Gov. Burgum believes people should be held accountable for their actions and plans on defeating Joe Biden by such a large margin that there will be no question that Doug won.”
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Burgum does not appear to have publicly said whether he would consider pardoning people convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 attack, and the brief statement from Trover did not address this question.
Chris Christie
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Christie has acknowledged that Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. In his 2021 book, Christie wrote, “An election for president was held on November 3, 2020. Joe Biden won. Donald Trump did not.” In 2020, he said on CNN, “This election, there has been no evidence put forward that has shown me as a former prosecutor that there is any fraud that would change the results of the election. It’s time for us to accept that defeat.” His campaign did not respond to The Post’s questionnaire.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Christie does not appear to have publicly stated his position.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Christie does not appear to have publicly said whether he would consider pardoning people convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 attack.
Christie has been outspoken against the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and has suggested that Trump was responsible.
Larry Elder
1. 2020 election legitimacy
In response to The Post’s questionnaire, Elder did not respond yes or no, but his answer made clear he does not think Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. He accused Democrats of “cheating by changing the rules in the middle of the game in 2020,” as he pointed to election laws that were changed due to the pandemic. Such changes were legal.
Elder’s position has not been consistent. While running for governor of California in 2021, he told the Sacramento Bee, “I do believe that Joe Biden won the election fairly and squarely.” The following month he said, “I don’t believe the election was won fairly and squarely.” This year Elder said that he does not believe Biden won the election fair and square.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
In response to The Post’s inquiry, Elder said “Yes,” he commits to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
In response to The Post’s questionnaire, Elder did not respond yes or no but said he “would review each conviction on a case-by-case basis to make sure that politics didn’t impact the process,” leaving open the possibility of pardoning people convicted in connection to Jan. 6.
Nikki Haley
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Haley said she believes that Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. In response to The Post’s questionnaire she said, “Yes,” before adding that “there was fraud in the 2020 election, but no court or state legislature found that it was enough to change the outcome. Ensuring election integrity remains critically important for our democracy.”
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Haley told The Post “Yes,” she would commit to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Haley said that “No,” she would not consider pardoning people convicted in connection to Jan. 6 and that “People must pay the price for crimes committed — that should go for criminals across the political spectrum.”
Will Hurd
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Hurd said he believes that Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. “Joe Biden beat Donald Trump fair and square,” he said in response to The Post’s questionnaire.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Hurd said he “absolutely” commits to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election, adding, “We have a duty to recognize and respect the will of the American people.”
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Hurd said that he will not consider pardoning people convicted in connection to Jan. 6. “Hell no,” he said.
Asa Hutchinson
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Hutchinson said he believes Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. In response to The Post’s questionnaire Hutchinson said, “Yes, President Joe Biden won.” In 2020, Hutchinson was among the first group of GOP governors to acknowledge Biden as the winner of the election.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Hutchinson said he would commit to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election. In response to The Post, Hutchinson said, “in order to safeguard the future of our democracy we should accept the certified results of the 2024 election.”
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Hutchinson said he would not consider pardoning people convicted in connection to Jan. 6. He told The Post, “I would not extend any special pardon or clemency consideration to January 6 defendants.”
Mike Pence
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Pence presided over the congressional process that confirmed Biden’s election win, despite intense appeals by Trump to do the opposite. “President Trump was wrong then, and he is wrong now,” Pence said in a speech launching his presidential bid. His campaign did not respond to The Post’s questions.
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Still, he has at times sought to criticize how the election was conducted. In a February interview on the “Unapologetic With Julia Jeffress Sadler” podcast, Pence said, “It made it difficult in many people’s minds in 2020 because there were voting irregularities in many states. Rules had been changed in the name of covid that seemed to benefit Democrat candidates for office. Ultimately there would be no evidence of widespread fraud, but those irregularities did occur.”
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Pence does not appear to have said publicly whether he will accept the certified results of the 2024 election.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Pence said he would not consider pardoning people convicted in connection to Jan. 6. “I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our Capitol,” he said in a CNN town hall in June. On Jan. 6, some rioters chanted “hang Mike Pence!” over his refusal to try to overturn the election results.
Vivek Ramaswamy
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Ramaswamy, did not directly say whether he accepts that Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. She said he believes efforts by social media companies that sought to curb the spread of news reports about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were an “illegitimate form of election interference.” (Twitter executives later said restricting access to the story as disinformation had been a mistake.)
His stance marks a shift from his past comments. In his book “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence,” he criticized Trump for not accepting his loss. “The election was done, and it was time to move on,” he wrote. “We fought, we lost, and I accepted the result.”
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Ramaswamy commits to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Ramaswamy said he would pardon nonviolent offenders convicted in connection to Jan. 6 and those he believes were denied evidence before conviction that he thinks by law they should have received.
Tim Scott
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Scott voted to certify the results of the election in 2020, and in an interview in May 2021 with CBS News, Scott said of Biden, “of course he is” the legitimate president. His campaign did not answer The Post’s questions.
At a town hall in Iowa in July, Scott said, “I do not believe the election was stolen.” He added, “There was cheating, but was the election stolen? There’s a difference. I think [in] every election there’s cheating.”
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Scott has said he will accept the results of the 2024 election. In an interview with NBC News, Scott said “No,” he would not ever try to overturn an election he lost.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Scott has not publicly said whether he would consider pardoning people convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 attack.
Francis Suarez
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Suarez said “Of course,” in response to The Post’s questionnaire.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Suarez said he would “Of course” accept the election results in response to The Post’s questionnaire.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
In response to The Post’s question, he did not close the door to pardons and said he would “make no such blanket promise” without reviewing each case.
Joe Biden
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Biden has said he believes he is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. In response to The Post’s questionnaire, Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said “Yes,” citing election authorities across the country.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Munoz said “Yes,” Biden commits to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Biden “will not pardon the individuals that assaulted our nation’s Capitol,” Munoz told The Post.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Kennedy said he believes Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. In response to The Post’s questionnaire, Kennedy said he has “seen no compelling evidence to doubt the legitimacy of the election.” He added that “rumors and conspiracy theories feed off a genuine problem.”
“We need to make sure our electoral process is transparent, verifiable, and unhackable,” he said. “Until then, there will always be doubts about election integrity, and these doubts exert a corrosive force on our democracy.”
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Kennedy did not commit to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election.
In response to The Post, Kennedy said, “This is not the right question” and that the focus should instead be on asking how we can “make the voting process uncorruptible.”
“The fact that your question even needs to be asked points to a serious problem,” he said.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Kennedy said he would consider pardoning people convicted in connection to Jan. 6.
In response to The Post’s questionnaire, Kennedy said, “If prosecutorial malfeasance is demonstrated, then yes. Otherwise, no.”
Marianne Williamson
1. 2020 election legitimacy
Williamson said “Yes,” she believes Biden is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
2. Accepting the 2024 election results
Williamson committed to accepting the certified results of the 2024 election. She said “Yes” in response to The Post’s questionnaire.
3. Jan. 6 pardons
Williamson said she would not consider pardoning people convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 attack.
In response to The Post’s questionnaire, Williamson said, “No, I would not.”
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