Likely frontrunner for RNC chair parroted Trump’s 2020 election lies

CNN —

Former President Donald Trump and his allies are pushing to replace the chair of the Republican National Committee with North Carolina’s party leader who promoted 2020 presidential election lies and supported using the courts to overturn the results.

Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, shared false claims that Republican observers were prevented from accessing polling locations and repeatedly said Democratic cities in swing states were engaged in “massive fraud,” a CNN KFile review of Whatley’s comments following the election found.

Whatley, who has since acknowledged Joe Biden is the country’s legitimate president, currently serves as general counsel at the RNC overseeing litigation and what the organization calls its “election integrity” efforts.

His elevation to RNC chair could give Trump a loyalist more willing to devote resources to pursue future voter fraud claims in court should they arise. One reason why Trump soured on Ronna McDaniel, the current chair, was his perception she should have done more to fight for his candidacy in 2020, CNN reported.

Like many Republicans, Whatley publicly backed Trump’s voter fraud claims on multiple occasions following the 2020 election.

“Regardless of how these lawsuits come out around the country with the presidential race we do know that there was massive fraud that took place,” Whatley said in one late November 2020 interview on local North Carolina radio. “We know that it took place in places like Milwaukee and Detroit and Philadelphia.”

There is no evidence of massive fraud in any of those cities or around the country as Republican election officials and Trump-appointed former Attorney General William Barr have