Fox Business host Stuart Varney laughed off Lara Trump's Tuesday suggestion that it "could be Donald Trump" who gets inaugurated on January 20.
Varney asked the 2020 campaign adviser and daughter-in-law to the president to respond to reports that Donald Trump is planning a Turnberry, Scotland, golf outing instead of attending President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration day ceremony. Trump said "I don't know anything about Scotland" travel plans within the family despite The Sunday Post, a Scottish newspaper, reporting the planned arrival of a U.S. military Boeing 757 aircraft at Glasgow Prestwick Airport on January 19. Lara Trump downplayed the report of the president skipping the inauguration to play golf and instead touted the "reality" Trump will be in town for his own inauguration.
Trump said there are "too many questions" about Biden's election win for her to imagine the president "attending the inauguration of an opponent you know you beat." Longtime Trump confidante, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, remarked recently that Trump should attend the inauguration because "lots of other people have gone through very difficult losses" and still attended—including Hillary Clinton four years ago and Al Gore in 2000.
Unlike Trump, both of those presidential candidates won the popular vote. But they did not win the Electoral College vote which is this week being challenged by pro-Trump senate Republicans.
"I don't know anything yet about Scotland, look there is a reality that it could be Donald Trump who gets inaugurated on January 20. We still have to wait and see what happens, we have a bunch of senators that are calling for an investigation now, a 10-day investigation, to see about all the voter fraud and—" Trump said, before Varney interrupted her response.
"Forgive me Lara, I think that's a real stretch," Varney politely scoffed. "That is a major league long shot to suggest Donald J. Trump will be reinaugurated 15 days from now."
Washington lawmakers and close Trump associates from both parties have expressed their belief the president will skip the January 20 ceremony for Biden, breaking with the decades-old tradition that is intended to demonstrate a peaceful transfer of power.
Lara, who is married to Trump's second-oldest son, Eric, doubled down and noted that 12 GOP senators are planning to block an Electoral College vote count Wednesday. She said the Republican lawmakers who are still contesting the election need answers, despite numerous legal challenges finding no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any state. Several Republicans including Senator Tom Cotton have urged their GOP colleagues not to block the Wednesday vote.
"I don't know the president's plans on inauguration day, so unfortunately I can't speak to whether he'll be in Scotland or Washington, D.C.," Trump said. "It would be pretty tough to attend the inauguration of an opponent you know you beat, Stuart. There are so many questions surrounding this election I think it would be hard for anyone to just sit there and watch that."
Trump appeared hopeful that the 12 Republican senators nicknamed the "sedition caucus" are able to obstruct the January 6 joint session electoral vote count and overturn Biden's victory. Regardless, she added, the president is a "fighter" who will almost surely "run again" in 2024.
"Look, it may be a stretch, but I think my point is there's a lot that has to happen between now and Inauguration Day," she concluded.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Lara Trump as well as the White House Tuesday afternoon.
