West Virginia’s Secretary of State insists the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from then President Donald Trump with a key federal agency to blame.
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican who’s running for the state governorship, said he’s convinced the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” and that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to blame.
Mr. Warner, a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Army, made the remarks during a Dec. 7 debate held by Metro News among candidates for West Virginia’s 2024 gubernatorial election.
During the debate, the candidates discussed a range of issues, including tax cuts and economic growth. At one point in the debate, Mr. Warner was asked by the moderator whether he believes former President Donald Trump is “correct when he says—continues to say—the election was stolen.”
Mr. Warner replied in the affirmative—and explained his rationale for siding with President Trump’s version of events around the 2020 election.
“The election was stolen,” Mr. Warner said. “And it was stolen by the CIA.”
‘Sell a Lie to The American People’
Mr. Warner went on to allege that former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell “colluded” with Secretary of State Antony Blinken (who at the time was advising the Biden presidential campaign) to manage the production of a letter signed by 51 former senior intelligence officials that cast doubt on the veracity of the contents of the infamous Hunter Biden laptop by framing it as Russian disinformation.
“He colluded with Antony Blinken to sell a lie to the American people … for the very purpose of throwing the presidential election,” Mr. Warner said.
Polling suggests that if voters had been aware of the laptop’s contents, some would have voted differently, with a potentially different outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Further, earlier this year, two Republican-controlled House committees published a report alleging the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) reviewed and approved the letter, with the report also alleging that a PCRB employee may even have recruited signatories.
Mr. Blinken has denied playing any role in the letter, and the CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Tom Ozimek
