“I have come to a conclusion and I want to be definitive about it: The election was not stolen,” Bolduc said, adding that while he still believes there was fraud, “the election has consequences and, unfortunately, President Biden is the rightful president of it of the country”.
The comments marked a turnaround from last month, when during a primary debate he doubled down on his past false claims.
“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying Trump won the election and damn, I’m standing by [it],” Bolduc said during the debate in mid-August.
Hassan’s campaign described Bolduc’s new public stance as an unconvincing and cynical ploy.
“Don Bolduc spent the entire campaign promoting the Big Lie and he can’t hide from that record. He’s even said he supports overturning the 2024 election results if it doesn’t go his way,” Hassan campaign spokesman Kevin told Donohoe. “A word salad at Fox won’t erase his record of election denial.”
Earlier Thursday, Hassan’s campaign shared a video of Bolduc’s keynote on Twitter, tweeting, “Don Bolduc is an election denier.”
Bolduc’s campaign did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for an explanation for his ouster.
Hassan’s position represents a prime opportunity for Republicans, who are trying to erase the slim Democratic majority in the Senate this fall. New Hampshire went for incumbent Joe Biden by 7 points in 2020, and many in the GOP leadership believe Hassan is susceptible to a capable challenger — a view that led them to support Senate President Chuck Morse in the primary . Morse conceded to Bolduc early Wednesday. Morse had been backed by popular Democratic Gov. Chris Sununu, whom Senate Republicans tried — and failed — to enlist against Hasan. Top GOP establishment figures also backed Morse, worried that Bold
UK’s rhetoric about the 2020 election, his calls to abolish the direct election of senators as required by the 17th Amendment, and his criticism of the FBI after the investigation into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence would doom him to defeat in general elections. Sununu during the primary called Bolduc a “conspiracy theorist type candidate” and warned that Republicans “would have a much harder time” flipping the seat if he were nominated.
At a news conference Wednesday, Hassan offered a preview of the campaign, calling Bolduc “the most extreme U.S. Senate candidate New Hampshire has seen in decades” and zeroing in on his ties to Trump.
“It’s interesting that Donald Trump endorsed Don Bolduc this morning and again, Don Bolduc is supporting the denial of the 2020 election — he’s helped spread these lies, he says he supports or is open to abolishing the FBI and he says if the 2024 election doesn’t go the way he thinks it should, he would work to overturn it,” Hassan said.
Trump did not run in New Hampshire’s GOP Senate primary. Trump congratulated Boldus on Wednesday for his “BIG WIN in New Hampshire” in a post on the former president’s social truth platform. Bolduc’s campaign shared a screenshot of that post on Twitter, writing: “Strong words from President Trump. Thank you, sir!” Bolduc had shown some signs in the last week that he was beginning to move away from the false claims about the 2020 election central to his candidacy. In an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio published on September 2, he repeatedly demurred when asked about these allegations.
Ultimately, though, after the interviewer made it clear that “there was no evidence that the 2020 election was stolen,” Bolduc tried to distance himself from that language.
“Did I say it was stolen? I didn’t say it was stolen. I said granite stators have problems, and that’s the important thing. I just want to be clear about what I’m saying,” he said.
Bolduc, however, has long been a mouthpiece for Trump’s lies. In an interview with the New Yorker published in October 2021, he defended his decision to sign the letter declaring Trump the winner of 2020 and insisted that his allegations of rigged elections and fraud were sincere.
“I strongly believe that, and I think there is, and I think it’s happening and it’s been happening for a long time in this country. When you try to steal the Presidency, a lot of people are going to say, ‘Okay, wait.’ ?” Bolduc then said.
