In a new, wide-ranging interview on "Pod Force One" with Miranda Devine, President Donald Trump is saying out loud what he says a growing body of evidence increasingly supports: the 2020 election was rigged, the people responsible are known, and something is coming for them.
Trump was unambiguous. "We had a rigged election," he told Devine. "I used to say that a year and a half ago, the election was rigged. And the cameras would literally turn off. Yeah. And the anchor would say, 'Sir, you're not allowed to say that.' Now nobody ever turns off the camera because it's been proven to be rigged."
Trump added, "Look at what happened in Georgia. Look at all the stuff that we found out. It was a rigged election. Biden lost in a landslide."
Trump went further, connecting the consequences of that election and the disasters that followed, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which, Trump says, "would have never happened" had he still been in office. And, of course, there was Biden's border crisis, which resulted in, by Trump's count, 25 million illegal immigrants into the United States in four years, many of whom, he said, were criminals.
"And fentanyl deaths," Devine pointed out.
"Yeah. He was the worst president," Trump argued. "And we were laughed at all over the world as a country. We're not laughed at anymore. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world."
Devine pressed him directly on the accountability for what happened in the 2020 election. "So someone has to be punished, though, for that," she said. "So how do you do that?"
"Well, you don't have to punish them all," he said. "I'd rather not get into it. Let's see what happens. The election was rigged. We know who rigged the election. We know it. We know everything now. You know, we have information that nobody thought was possible. But when you get to office, all of a sudden, people start giving you things."
Trump's comments may keep the issue alive, but this is hardly the first time voters have been told that major accountability is just around the corner.
FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures in April and delivered a statement that left little room for interpretation. "We are going to be making arrests, and it's coming, and I promise you, it's coming soon," Patel told host Maria Bartiromo.
Bartiromo had been skeptical of all the claims that accountability was actually coming. "President Trump - he says this repeatedly - that the election was rigged in 2020. I mean, he says it all the time. We all know that. And it's almost getting lost because he says it so much. You've been at the FBI for 14 months now. Have you done anything about that? And do you have anything to tell us about that?"
Patel said the FBI has spent the past year uncovering records and restricted case files that he claims were deliberately hidden within the bureau. According to Patel, investigators now have all the evidence they need and are working with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and DOJ prosecutors to pursue accountability.
While offering few specifics, Patel signaled that the investigation is entering a new phase. "We've got all the information we need," Patel said, promising that more prosecutions are on the way.
Monica Crowley, the U.S. government's chief of protocol, added another layer a month later. "He did win in a landslide, and we will soon be able to give evidence about that," Crowley said.
The allegations are serious, but public fatigue has built up around them, too. Americans have been promised developments before and are still waiting for something to be done. If this story is going anywhere, it will need to move from repeated promises to something concrete.