Lindsey Graham warns Donald Trump could lose in 2024 if he focuses on 2020 election

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned former President Donald Trump to not “look back” on the 2020 election if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee, saying that he thinks Trump risks losing in 2024 if he focuses on the past. 

“I accept the election results of 2020. I'm worried about 2024,” Graham said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “If President Trump puts the vision out, improving security and prosperity for Americans, he will win. If he looks back, I think he will lose.”

“So, at the end of the day, the 2020 election’s over for me. We need to secure the ballot in the 2024 cycle,” Graham added. 

Graham, however, argued Trump is not the first presidential candidate to claim the election was stolen from them, referring to Hillary Clinton’s previous comments on her loss to Trump in 2016. Clinton has called Trump an “illegitimate president.”

“Hillary Clinton had the same view that she was cheated. He’s not the first politician to claim to have been denied a fair election,” Graham said.

But Trump has made more significant allegations of an unfair election than Clinton or other recent presidential nominees. He has claimed for years without evidence that there was widespread voter fraud that altered the results of the 2020 race for the White House.

Graham on Sunday also criticized a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that bars Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 GOP primary ballot. The court found the former president violated the 14th Amendment and “engaged in insurrection” amidst the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“It is a political decision. The hatred of Trump is so widespread,” Graham said. “This Colorado Supreme Court made a political decision. In my view, there is no constitutional basis for the decision they rendered.”

The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is expected to land before the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future. Graham, who is supporting Trump in the 2024 GOP primary, said he thinks the case will be a “slam dunk,” and the ruling will be overturned. 

“Donald Trump will eventually be on the ballot in Colorado. I think he will win the primary,” Graham said. “But this ruling in Colorado is chilling to me and it would set up a politicization of the presidential races. It would be bad for the country.”