n the minds of some Donald Trump devotees, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and former Michigan GOP Executive Director Jason Roe committed unpardonable sins when they denied that widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election and acknowledged that now-President Joe Biden defeated Trump legitimately. Roe has resigned from his post following the backlash from Trump supporters, while Barr is feuding with former U.S. attorney William McSwain — who is seeking the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania’s 2022 gubernatorial race.
These clashes follow the high-profile fights that have divided Republican members of Congress over the 2020 election, including, most prominently the fight between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Liz Cheney that led to the Wyoming congresswoman getting booted from the party’s leadership.
Comments that Roe made in November later came back to haunt him. Roe told Politico that “the election wasn’t stolen” and that “there is no one to blame but Trump” for Biden’s victory — and six months later, pro-Trump Republican precinct delegates in Michigan angrily demanded Roe’s resignation. Debra Ell, the Republican organizer who led the anti-Roe effort, told the Washington Post, “He said there was no fraud — again, that’s something that doesn’t line up with what we think really happened — and then, he said it’s all Donald Trump’s fault.”
However, the Michigan Senate GOP recently released a statement admitting that a thorough study of the 2020 election found no support for Trump’s claims that the vote was tainted by fraud or malfeasance.