By Kristen Leigh Painter

Minneapolis Star Tribune

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, responding to major retailers pulling his products in an effort to distance themselves from his claims about voting fraud, said Tuesday he is less worried about his business than he is about the U.S. presidential election.

Kohl’s, Wayfair, H-E-B and Bed Bath & Beyond are ending their supplier relationship with Chaska, Minn.-based MyPillow for now, Lindell said.

Lindell, an outspoken backer of President Donald Trump, on Friday spent a few minutes with the president at the White House. He was photographed going into the West Wing with a document of apparent steps Trump could take to try to remain in power, including invoking martial law.

Lindell said executives from several big box stores called him this week to ask him to “back down” on his claims of election fraud.

“I said, ‘No, our country is under attack by China. They stole the election,’ ” Lindell said.

He said he thinks retailers now distancing from MyPillow will again order its products “once they quit getting attacked by the bots and the trolls.”

In the interview, Lindell reasserted his allegations that China hacked into the electronic voting systems, included those operated by Dominion Voting Systems, used in the U.S. election. For the next several days, he plans to push forward these claims.

“I believe that Dominion, the machine people, hired these entities to attack MyPillow and all these other companies,” Lindell said.

Lawyers for Dominion sent Lindell a letter on Jan. 8 demanding he retract his public allegations of fraud against the company and issue an apology. Lindell said Tuesday he welcomes a lawsuit.