Don Bolduc, a Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire, scolded a debate audience when members laughed at his bizarre claim about out-of-state voters.
Bolduc, a far-right candidate and Army veteran, had peddled false claims about the 2020 presidential election before he distanced himself from them following his Republican primary victory last month.
The GOP candidate had campaigned on unfounded claims about election fraud but later claimed in a Fox News interview that he had done research and found that the presidential race “was not stolen,” CNN reported.
Bolduc returned to making claims about election fraud during his debate against Democratic opponent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on Thursday. The Republican said “Granite Staters” tell him that school buses brought thousands of people into the state to vote illegally.
The audience, however, appeared to be more amused than alarmed as he challenged the integrity of the state’s elections.
“We need to make sure that the 10,000 people that show up on the same day without an I.D. card actually come back and prove it, 10,000 people, less than 400 came back,” Bolduc said before he turned to face the crowd. “You can laugh about it, but people in New Hampshire aren’t laughing about it.”
Bolduc later appeared to call out members of the audience for shaking their heads in response to his remarks.
Watch Bolduc’s reaction to the crowd below: