The former president of the United States is calling one of South Dakota’s sitting U.S. senators a “jerk.”
Donald Trump made the statement against Sen. Mike Rounds after Rounds told ABC News the 2020 election results were correct. Rounds appeared Thursday and Sunday on ABC shows.
Trump's statement asks if Rounds is “crazy or just stupid." The statement also makes several false claims about the election.
Since before the election, Trump has claimed the election was rigged. Pro-Trump efforts challenging the election results have been disproven and rejected.
Rounds, a Republican, told ABC News he pored over election results and saw nothing that would change the outcome.
"I was one of the members that took the time to look at the election results that were delivered to us, and we looked at over 60 different accusations made in the states about irregularities within the election process," Rounds said.
Rounds said President Joe Biden was duly elected.
"I can tell you that even though there were some irregularities, none of them would have changed the election result in any single state," Rounds said. "The election results as certified were correct.”
Rounds responded to Trump on Monday afternoon with a lengthy written statement reiterating many of the points from the earlier interviews.
"I’m disappointed but not surprised by the former president’s reaction. However, the facts remain the same. I stand by my statement. The former president lost the 2020 election," Rounds said in the statement.
He also said, "As a Republican Party, our focus should be on what lies ahead, not what’s in the past. Elections are about growing support for your party, not further dividing it. Attacking Republicans certainly isn’t going to result in a winning formula. Neither is telling citizens not to vote. If we are going to win in 2022 and 2024, we have to move forward together.”
