Lara Trump on 2020 election: ‘I think we’re past that’

Lara Trump thinks the Republican Party is past disputing the 2020 presidential election, she told NBC News in a Tuesday interview. Her remarks come despite the fact that her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, continues to campaign on unfounded claims that he lost the race due to election fraud.

“Well, I think we’re past that. I think that’s in the past,” the recently elected Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair said in the interview. “We learned a lot. Certainly, we took a lot of notes.”

“The past is the past, and unfortunately, we had to learn a couple of hard lessons in 2020. Believe me, we are taking those, we are applying them all across this country in every single state and we want to ensure that indeed, every single legal vote was counted,” she continued.

Just weeks into her tenure in a leadership position at the RNC, Lara Trump’s comments demonstrate a shift in the GOP. The RNC laid off more than 60 people in early March, including senior staff. In the interview with NBC, Lara Trump said they addressed staffing that the party “probably didn’t need there.”

With former President Trump as the only remaining GOP presidential candidate for the November election, Lara Trump said the RNC is focused on encouraging Republican voters to embrace new ideas for voting — particularly ones her father-in-law has previously slammed.

Earlier this month, she said the RNC’s top priority is “protecting the vote” in this fall’s elections.

“I think when we’re looking at [the] actual election, we have to start encouraging Republican voters to do things like voting early, trust mail-in voting,” she said Tuesday. “These are ways that we actually can have a big lead as we head into Election Day, and these are things that traditionally Republicans have sort of shied away from.”

Before earning one of the party’s top positions, Lara Trump said she would spend “every single penny” of the RNC’s funds to get Trump back in the White House. A big question surrounding the change in leadership is whether the RNC will fund Trump’s mounting legal fees.

Lara Trump said the RNC “does not support paying his legal bills.” She later made a pitch to Republican voters, asking them to trust her to use their donations correctly.

“Trust me, I am the daughter-in-law of Donald Trump, I will ensure that every penny of every dollar is going to causes that Republican voters care about,” she said. “We want to of course elect Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, and then, of course, Republicans all the way down.”