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When reports first emerged earlier this week that the Republican National Committee had been asking potential hires whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen, there was concern that the question represented something of a "litmus test for being hired," as The Washington Post put it.
However, officials in the Donald Trump campaign say there's a deeper reason for the query. According to a Thursday report from Axios, a campaign official said the question was meant to identify job candidates who could "think through complex problems."
“If we don’t have someone who has thought deeply about these issues as it pertains to the Republican Party, then that would suggest they’re not particularly a curious young person," the official said on a media call, according to Axios.
NBC News and MSNBC were not on the call and have not independently verified the reporting. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview with WISN 12 News, RNC press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the question “is not a litmus test."
"We are interviewing people that are going to be on the frontlines of the battleground states, where we know there were widespread irregularities and fraud in the 2020 election," she said. "What we want to do is understand where people stand. We want critical thinkers on our team."
But the explanation itself is curious, considering the answer to that question is not at all complex: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. And the election was not "stolen" from Trump; he is, in fact, currently facing multiple criminal cases for allegedly trying to overturn the election results himself. (Trump has denied claims of election interference.)
However, that hasn't stopped the former president and his allies from continuing to air their grievances about the election. And given that several election deniers now hold leadership positions in the RNC, it's not entirely surprising that they may want to hire like-minded people.