Would-be staffers at the Republican National Committee have been asked during job interviews about their views on whether the 2020 election was affected by fraud, a source familiar with the situation told The Post Wednesday.
The question, coming on the heels of a change in leadership that hitched the GOP apparatus to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has rattled some applicants who sought positions in potential swing states.
Some of the aspiring operatives, the source added, were also informed that they may have to move to West Palm Beach, Fla., next door to the 45th president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
“Candidates who worked on the front line in battleground states or are currently in states where fraud allegations have been prevalent were asked about their work experience,” RNC and Trump spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told The Post.
“We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.”
The line of questioning was first reported by the Washington Post.
Trump, 77, has long insisted that re-election was “stolen” from him in 2020 due to widespread fraud. However, no proof of that has emerged.
Earlier this month, Trump locked down sufficient delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee and backed a shakeup at the RNC, with North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley becoming chair, daughter-in-law Lara Trump becoming co-chair, and top advisers Chris LaCivita and James Blair landing senior roles.
After the 2020 election, Whatley complained of “massive fraud,” only to say months later that Joe Biden was “absolutely” legitimately elected while making election integrity a top focus of the North Carolina Republican Party.
An RNC employee hired before the Trump campaign-backed shakeup told The Post they were not asked about the 2020 election in their interview process.
Another source close to the organization said it “wouldn’t surprise me” if the election fraud question was asked.
“While it’s understandable that a political party –– or any political entity –– wants broad conformity with its politics or guiding philosophy, it’s concerning that believing the 2020 election was stolen is now an article of faith,” that source added.
“The guiding hiring practice at the RNC should be hiring the best Republicans who can win an election. Period,” they added. “Ignoring messaging malpractice, this is an ill-thought swipe at the way Republican states and counties administered the 2020 election.”
“In Donald Trump’s America, elections are only fair when he wins and nothing is off the table to stay in power — including violence like on January 6th and being a dictator on day one,” Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
“Donald Trump is demanding fealty to his extreme, anti-democratic beliefs to be part of his Republican Party.”
Skepticism of the 2020 election continues to run deep in the public mind, especially among Republicans.
Roughly one-third of voters don’t believe Biden’s victory was legitimate, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll published earlier this year.
Still, other Republicans are trying to avoid fighting the last war.
“Well, I think we’re past that. I think that’s in the past,” Lara Trump told NBC News Tuesday. “We learned a lot. Certainly, we took a lot of notes.”
“The past is the past, and unfortunately, we had to learn a couple of hard lessons in 2020,” she added. “Believe me, we are taking those, we are applying them all across this country in every single state and we want to ensure that indeed, every single legal vote was counted.”
Lara Trump previously contended that the RNC’s highest priority should be “protecting the vote” in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Over the weekend, former RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel affirmed that “the reality is Joe Biden won, he’s the president,” while maintaining, “I continue to say there were issues in 2020.”
