Earlier this week, Trump sat down with Phillip McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, for an interview, and he claimed he would have won California had Jesus Christ been the one counting the votes. 

“I look at California, I gave a speech. … I had a crowd so big. I said, ‘There’s no way I could lose California,’ but automatically, they mark it down, if you’re a Republican, as a loss, that you lose by 5 million votes,” he claimed. “I said, ‘5 million votes?’ I guarantee if Jesus came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK?”

Elex Michaelson, the host of the Fox 11 Los Angeles show The Issue Is, asked Whatley about those comments and whether Trump being able to win the Golden State was really possible.

“The president can tell stories, but I think we want to make the point that it is very important for us to have election security protection in place to protect the ballot,” he said. “I think that he feels that California … there are a lot of Republicans and there are a lot of votes here. I think he was probably, you know, a little bit of a stretch.”

Whatley had sat down for the interview to discuss the RNC’s “Protect the Vote” initiative. Whatley said the RNC is hoping to recruit thousands of people to work as poll workers, poll observers, and lawyers in order to ensure the integrity of this year’s election. 

Trump had questioned the integrity of the 2020 election, having blamed, without evidence, mail-in ballots for being a hotbed for voter fraud. He has since changed his position on early voting and absentee ballots, now encouraging his supporters to participate.