Caitlyn Jenner, the former reality television star who is running for governor of California, has refused to say that Donald Trump lost the recent election, instead praising the ex-president as a ‘disrupter.’
Jenner, who is one of more than a dozen Republicans who have either said they would run or are thinking about running to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, appeared on ABC’s The View on Thursday.
One of the daytime talk show’s co-hosts, Joy Behar, asked Jenner if she would acknowledge that President Joe Biden defeated Trump this past November.
Behar said: ‘You say that you’re a Republican, and I’m just wondering because a lot of Republicans in this country believe that Donald Trump won the election and not Joe Biden.
‘Are you one of those people, one of those Republicans?’
Jenner refused to answer the question, stating that she’s ‘not going to get into that’ because the ‘election is over with.’
Caitlyn Jenner (right), who is running for governor of California as a Republican, refused to acknowledge Donald Trump’s election loss when asked to do so by The View’s Joy Behar (left) on Thursday
‘I think Donald Trump did do some good things,’ Jenner says in the segment. ‘What I liked about Donald Trump is that he was a disrupter.’ The former president is seen above in Greenville, North Carolina on June 5
‘I think Donald Trump did do some good things,’ Jenner says in the segment.
‘What I liked about Donald Trump is that he was a disrupter.’
Behar then repeated her question, saying: ‘But did he win? Did he win the election?’
Jenner replied: ‘He was a disrupter when he was president. I want to do the same thing.
‘I want to go in and be a thoughtful disrupter in Sacramento.’
She added: ‘We need to change the system. I want to change that system for the positive.
‘I’m in it for the people.’
Behar’s co-host, Whoopi Goldberg, interrupted the exchange to end the segment due to time constraints.
Recent surveys show Republicans are more likely to doubt the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election win. The president and First Lady Jill Biden (right) are seen above in Cornwall, United Kingdom on Thursday
Overall, 29 per cent of Republicans said they believed it was very or somewhat likely Trump will be reinstated as president this year
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman tweeted last week that former President Donald Trump has been telling people he expects to be reinstated as president by August
Americans are divided along partisan lines over the question of whether Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election.
Last month, a CBS News poll found that 67 percent of Republican Party voters believe Trump was the real winner.
The CBS News survey was conducted by YouGov between May 12 and 14.
It spoke to 951 ‘self-identified Republicans (including Republicans and Republican-leaners)’.
Earlier this week, a survey by Morning Consult / Politico found that nearly a third of registered GOP voters believe Trump will be reinstated as president this coming summer.
A national tracking poll conducted from June 4 through 7 found that 29 per cent of self-identified Republicans believed it very or somewhat likely that Trump will be reinstated as U.S. president this year.
‘That’s actually something that appears to be resonating fairly deeply with Republican voters,’ Morning Consult senior editor Cameron Easley said Wednesday on SiriusXM’s ‘Julie Mason Mornings’ adding that he found it to be an ‘eye-popping number.’
Last week, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted that Trump ‘has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.’
‘No that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information,’ the journalist added, as an aside.
The Washington Post confirmed Haberman’s reporting noting that Trump has become fixated on election audits and shared with allies that they could result in him returning to the White House later this year.
‘Some advisers said that such comments appear to be just offhand musings,’ The Post also wrote.
No matter the seriousness the sentiment has triggered that belief in various groups, the poll found.
Among Republicans, 17 percent said they thought it very likely and 12 percent said it was somewhat likely that Trump would be reinstated.
Among all voters, 10 percent said it was very likely and 9 percent said it was somewhat likely that Trump would get put back in the White House.
Jenner is one of more than a dozen Republicans who have either declared their candidacy or are considering doing so as efforts to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom (seen above on June 3 in San Francisco) ramp up
State Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (left) and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (right) are other high-profile Republicans considering a run to unseat Newsom
Beyond Republicans, 22 percent of those who said they were employed by the government told Morning Consult and Politico’s pollsters that there was a very high chance Trump was reinstated.
Earlier this spring, Jenner announced her candidacy for governor as Republicans spearhead an effort to recall Newsom.
The 71-year-old Jenner won the men’s Olympic decathlon in 1976 and decades later became a reality TV star and transgender woman.
Her candidacy and her embrace of Republican politics as well as her support for Trump has sparked anger among the LGBTQ community.
With the Olympics more than four decades behind her, she’s probably best known these days for reality TV shows, including Keeping Up with the Kardashians and the spin-off I Am Cait.
Jenner made headlines in recent years with her ties to Trump, who lost to Biden in the state by over 5 million votes.
Jenner supported Trump in 2016 but later criticized his administration’s reversal of a directive on transgender access to public school bathrooms.
She also split with Trump after he said transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the US military.
So far, no date has been set for a recall election.
State Assemblyman Kevin Kiley; businessman John Cox, who Newsom defeated in 2018; and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer are the other high-profile Republicans considering a run to unseat Newsom.
Recent polling suggests Newsom would beat back the recall; a Republican hasn’t won a statewide race in heavily Democratic California since 2006.
But those same surveys reveal signs of an unsettled public: independent voters, for example, tend to view his job performance skeptically and most say the state is going in the wrong direction.