Donald Trump’s judicial nominees perform Olympic-level gymnastics to avoid admitting he lost 2020 elections

There’s a new loyalty test for government offices, and it isn’t “respect the Constitution.” This week, senators asked three Trump judicial nominees the most basic, courtroom-grade question: Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? But that sent the three into verbal yoga.

At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 17, Sen. Richard Blumenthal pressed three Trump district-court nominees on a simple set of facts about the 2020 election. But Judge Megan Blair Benton, DOJ official Brian Charles Lea, and Indiana trial attorney Justin R. Olson all sat there like scaredy cats.

Blumenthal started with the softballs. “Who won the popular vote in the 2020 election?” But Benton responded like someone reading off a laminated script: “In 2020, Joseph Biden was declared the victor.” When he asked again, she repeated the same dodge: “Joseph Biden was declared the winner.”

Next time, Blumenthal tried framing the question in terms of electoral college results instead. But Benton did the same dance, same steps. When the senator finally asked, “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?” Benton again chanted variations of her previous answer. “Joseph Biden was certified as the winner.”And Lea and Olson followed.

The judicial nominees didn’t admit that Trump lost in 2020

The nominees kept repeating phrases like Biden was “certified,” Biden was “declared,” and Biden was “certified for four years.” No one would say the word lost. It wasn’t three separate answers. Their answers seemed like a group project where nobody did the reading, but everyone memorized the same sentence.

Blumethal then confronted Benton. “Wouldn’t you agree with me that you’re not answering the question?” But for the nth time, Benton replied, “I will just repeat that Joseph Biden was certified as the winner.” So, the senator unleashed it on her:

I mean, you can choose not to answer the question, but please don’t insult my intelligence by asking me to accept that answer. If you say you don’t want to answer the question, that’s fine. But to say that Biden was certified as the winner, I’m asking you, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election.

But the non-answer is the answer. Saying “Trump lost” is apparently too dangerous for people seeking government offices in this administration. What the nominees showed wasn’t the typical judicial restraint. It was political obedience dressed up as ethics.

“Trump lost the election” is not a political opinion; it’s a fact. Yet, the nominees were too afraid to say it out loud. As Senate Judiciary Democrats later put it, this was “painful to watch.”