Thomas Tiffany

ELM GROVE - Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said Monday FBI agents should continue to question election officials over Wisconsin's 2020 election, would not answer whether Joe Biden won the election, and said election workers should be charged if federal authorities deem it necessary.

Tiffany made his comments while taking questions from reporters at a May 18 campaign event in Elm Grove less than two weeks after FBI investigators interviewed a top state election administrator about the 2020 election and after agents sought in recent days to question Milwaukee election workers who helped administer the contest.

"Whatever they're searching for, the investigation should be allowed to continue and let's find out what happened there," Tiffany told reporters. "If there's improprieties that happened then there should be charges filed. If not, then you let the investigation cease."

President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Tiffany, continues to push the false claim that he won Wisconsin's 2020 election, suggesting widespread fraud in this battleground state contributed to his loss despite a lack of evidence existing to support the claim.

The FBI also has in recent months launched probes in the key battleground states in its pursuit to relitigate Trump's election loss.

Wisconsin's 2020 election outcome has been confirmed and vetted by lawsuits, a state audit, a study by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and through a taxpayer-funded investigation launched by Republican lawmakers that turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.

A recount of the 2020 election paid for by Trump in two Wisconsin counties also confirmed Trump's loss. Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.

Tiffany voted in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021 to reject Biden's presidential victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania. He told the Journal Sentinel at the time he would have voted to overturn Biden's victory in Wisconsin as well, had it been subject to a vote.

He also supported a lawsuit brought by the State of Texas in late 2020 to overturn election results in Wisconsin and three other battleground states that backed Biden — Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

When asked Monday if Tiffany believed Biden won the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election fairly, Tiffany did not answer.

Instead, he said, "The problem with the 2020 election was the improprieties that happened."

He referenced a move made by Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell during the April 2020 elections to declare all voters indefinitely confined due to the coronavirus pandemic − guidance that was later banned by the state Supreme Court. The indefinitely confined status meant voters could request absentee ballots without showing a photo ID.

Tiffany also cited millions of dollars that were distributed to clerks from private grants funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, which were distributed in 2020 by the Center for Tech and Civic Life to help administer the election. The funds were aimed at helping clerks meet unexpected costs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters later approved a constitutional amendment that barred private grant money from being used to carry out elections.

"So there are some fixes that needed to be done after the 2020 election. Some of them have happened since then and some of the bills that the Legislature sent to Governor Evers a few years ago − Governor Evers should have signed into law," Tiffany said.

"The people of Wisconsin have been very clear. They want to have election integrity and I support that and I will support it as a governor of the state of Wisconsin. Let's make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat."

Tiffany made the comments at a campaign event with former Republican Govs. Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker.

Molly Beck and Hope Karnopp can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].