Richard Grenell Is Still Spreading Lies About the Election

Donald Trump's favorite gay man, Richard Grenell, has denounced Wednesday's violence by a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol but repeated the myth of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.

Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence, appeared on the Fox News Channel's Hannity Wednesday night.

"We have to condemn this violence," Grenell told host Sean Hannity, then went on to falsely claim that liberals did not condemn the violence that accompanied some protests against systemic racism and police brutality last summer. Grenell also appeared to be buying into the theory put forth by some right-wing commentators that those who stormed and trashed the capitol might have been left-wing activists in disguise. "We need to figure out who these people are and get to the bottom of it," he said.

He then turned to the election. "Transparency in the election is going to be helpful," Grenell said. "If you want the public to understand what's at stake and whether or not the vote was real, you have to be able to come clean and give us the information." He repeated allegations about votes being cast in the name of dead people and said those who protested peacefully were driven by questions about the election's legitimacy. Trump himself has claimed the election was stolen from him, he encouraged his supporters to march on the capitol Wednesday.

But there is no question that the vote was real and that Joe Biden won both the popular vote and the electoral vote over Trump. A joint session of Congress certified the Electoral College count early Thursday morning, after proceedings to do so had been interrupted earlier by those storming the capitol. Agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, which ultimately report to Trump, put out a statement in November saying the election was the "most secure in American history" and that "there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

Hannity, however, concurred with Grenell's doubts about the election's integrity, as did fellow guest Jason Chaffetz, a Republican former congressman who is now a Fox News commentator.

Grenell also tweeted about Wednesday's chaos at the capitol.