Andrew Hitt, who is the former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party and a 2020 “fake elector” for former President Donald Trump recently spoke with CBS’s 60 Minutes and explained how he felt “tricked” by the former president.
It has been noted that Wisconsin was one of seven swing states where then-President Trump and his allies endeavored to overturn the 2020 election results, using a scheme in which Republican electors for Trump gathered together and cast fake electoral votes for Trump despite him losing the state. These “fake electors” were then meant to replace the Biden electors during the Jan. 6, 2021 electoral count in order to alter the outcome of the election.
“We were tricked. We weren’t made aware of any ulterior motive or scheme. And we wouldn’t have gone along with it had we been,” Hitt told Anderson Cooper, saying he would not have participated had he known Trump allies were doing this across the country.
“We viewed what we were doing [as] simply a contingency plan; the documents we signed would have no meaning unless a court gave them meaning. It’s clear now that those documents were used on Jan. 6 to, at the very least, help create the chaos of that day,” he added.
“Whenever anybody sees our text messages, our emails, our documents — they understand. Their conclusion is we were tricked. The January 6th committee saw it. Jack Smith, specifically in his indictment, refers to ‘some of the electors were tricked.’ That was us,” Hitt noted.
Hitt also discussed his fears of what Trump supporters might do to him and his family had he refused to go along.
“If I didn’t do that, and the court did throw out those votes, it would have been solely my fault that Trump wouldn’t have won Wisconsin. Can you imagine the repercussions on myself, my family, if it was me, Andrew Hitt, who prevented Donald Trump from winning Wisconsin?” he said.
“You’re saying you were scared?” followed up Cooper.
“Absolutely,” Hitt replied.
“Scared of Trump supporters in your state?” Cooper added.
“It was not a safe time. If my lawyer is right and the whole reason Trump loses Wisconsin is because of me, I would be scared to death,” he replied.
Hitt, who told Cooper he worked tirelessly in 2020 to reelect Trump, does not support him in 2024 and said the country needs to “move on” and find a way to have faith in institutions again.
“It was not a safe time. If my lawyer is right, and the whole reason Trump loses Wisconsin is because of me, I would be scared to death,” says Andrew Hitt, former head of the Republican Party in Wisconsin. https://t.co/h0nen6HUnu pic.twitter.com/f565C4c3Ly
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 19, 2024
