MILWAUKEE — A top Trump campaign official said Thursday that the 2024 presidential race will not be over until Inauguration Day, rather than after Election Day on Nov. 5 — when voters across the nation go to the polls to cast their ballots and a result normally is projected.
The assertion from Chris LaCivita at a Politico event is notable given former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, and the ensuing violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
It is also significant given that the U.S. Department of Justice alleges after Election Day in 2020, Trump co-conspired with lawyers and election officials in seven states to produce false slates of electors. According to the indictment, those slates were intended to be delivered to Vice President Mike Pence during the routine certification in a joint session of Congress in early January following presidential elections.
“It’s not over until he puts his hand on the Bible and takes the oath. It’s not over until then. It’s not over on Election Day, it’s over on Inauguration Day, cause I wouldn’t put anything past anybody,” LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, told Politico’s Jonathan Martin during a lengthy interview open to press and attendees, and livestreamed, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration, and he and many Republican lawmakers continue to repeat false claims that he won.
LaCivita interrupted with his comment when Martin was in the middle of asking about the prospects for Democrats on Election Day.
“It’s also possible that Donald Trump can lose,” Martin followed up. LaCivita said the campaign will remain focused on the issues.
A few moments later Martin asked LaCivita if he thinks it’s politically wise for Trump to continue campaigning on pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters.
“I always find it amazing that you guys are the ones that bring it up,” LaCivita said, referring to the press.
“That’s not true,” Martin replied.
“I’ve been in a lot of interviews where it’s the first question you guys ask,” LaCivita said. “What we’re talking about right now are the issues that matter, Social Security, protecting Social Security and Medicare, closing the border. I mean we have so much to talk about and that’s where our focus is.”
“In a perfect Chris LaCivita world (Trump) would never say the words ‘Jan. 6 hostages’ again,” Martin followed up.
LaCivita immediately responded and repeated: “Social Security, Medicaid, closing the border, deportation — yeah I said it — all of those things.”
In March, Trump told reporters he was open to cutting Social Security and other entitlement programs as a way to address the national debt.
Trump repeated false claims of election fraud in the months following the 2020 election and lost numerous court challenges in states that he insisted he won.
The fight erupted in political violence on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol Police with improvised weapons and the goal of stopping Congress from certifying the election results.
The historic criminal indictment of a former sitting U.S. president — handed up from a federal grand jury in August 2023 — charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official proceeding, among other felony counts.
Trump has successfully delayed the federal election subversion case as he appealed his motion to dismiss based on president criminal immunity all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The justices on July 1 ruled in a 6-3 decision that former presidents enjoy broad immunity for official acts, and sparked major questions over what type of evidence can be used in any such prosecution.
Reaction to the attempted assassination against Trump on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, has evolved over the RNC’s first three days. It’s gone from initial concerns about political violence to rallying around the event as a symbol of how “Trump Strong” can reshape America, as Donald Trump Jr. said Wednesday night.
Trump supporters wore fake bandages on their ears at the RNC as a political symbol, much like the red “Make America Great Again” hat.
“The energy or the emotion that you feel when something like that happens, how do you utilize it? How do you utilize it to get to where you need to be?” LaCivita said.
“How do you utilize it to win an election or how do you utilize it to bring the country together?” Martin followed up.
“I think it’s both,” LaCivita said.
The co-campaign manager sidestepped a question about whether Trump will make an effort during his RNC speech to tell supporters not to believe conspiracy theories circulating online that the shooting was a Democratic plot. Martin asked if LaCivita agreed that Trump tamping down accusations against his opposing political party would be “good for the country.”
LaCivita said the campaign is planning Trump’s speech to be “forward focused.”
“I mean look, there are not enough facts, and it’s not just up to us to talk about the facts resulting around what happened,” LaCivita said as he added to the chorus of criticism of the U.S. Secret Service and calling on its head to resign.
Hours after the shooting Saturday, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio — announced Monday at the RNC as Trump’s vice presidential pick — wrote on social media that “today is not just some isolated incident.”
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s assassination attempt,” he wrote.
Of the themes permeating the RNC, the major conservative Project 2025 has dogged Trump’s campaign in a way that LaCivita described as “a pain in the ass.”
The 922-page document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation roadmaps a presidential transition and plan to overhaul government administrations, to lobby Congress for national abortion restrictions and restoration of “the American family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.”
The organization held an all-day policy fest five blocks from the RNC convention hall Monday.
Trump denies any connection to the project, despite former Trump administration officials identifying their previous positions in the project materials. A CNN analysis found that 140 who previously worked for Trump helped on Project 2025.
LaCivita said any claim that Trump is connected to the project is “utter bulls—t.”
“They do not speak for the campaign.”
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on Facebook and X.
