CNN host shuts down Trump campaign Senior Advisor’s misinformation: “You’re saying a bunch of crap.”
The Republican Party is hellbent on engendering broad distrust in the concept of mail-in voting ahead of the 2020 election (except when they deem it advantageous to Trump) because GOP operatives realize that keeping their unpopular, incompetent president in the White House will be much easier with widespread voter suppression in place. Trump himself has been spearheading the efforts and numerous surrogates have been swarming the airwaves to peddle his mendacious talking points.
Mercedes Schlapp, a Senior Advisor for the Trump 2020 campaign, appeared on CNN today and tried to argue the repeatedly and widely debunked conspiracy theory that mass ballots are sent out to facilitate mail-in voting which in turn leads to rampant fraud. The host, Brianna Keilar, immediately called her on her lies.
“Mercedes, the only evidence that we’ve seen of ballot harvesting recently was by Republicans and you know that, in North Carolina, right? They had to redo the election,” explained Keilar.
Schlapp responded by reeling off a bunch of vague, paranoid accusations and when Keilar pushed back again Schlapp said: “Obviously I don’t think we’re seeing eye to eye.”
“No, because I’m talking about facts,” Keilar replied bluntly. She then tried to forge ahead with the interview by again explaining that voter fraud is not a common problem. Schlapp again responded by referring to her notes and spewing out more GOP misinformation.
“This is just pointless. Okay? This is pointless. I get it. You’re just saying a bunch of crap, okay? You’re saying a bunch of crap,” said Keilar, clearly fed up with Schlapp’s nonsense. Keilar then attempted to steer the interview back on track by focusing on the important issue: voting during a pandemic. Schlapp refused to continue in good faith, forcing Keilar to end the conversation.
It’s always telling to see Trump minions confronted with the facts because they immediately fall to pieces. Keilar was right to call Schlapp on her crap.
"This is just pointless. I get it. You're just saying a bunch of crap, okay? You're saying a bunch of crap" — @brikeilarcnn to Mercedes Schlapp as she conspiracy-mongers about mail-in voting pic.twitter.com/mv91jx9pEB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 4, 2020
Following the interview, Schlapp made the mistake of engaging Keilar on Twitter and promptly had her and Trump’s propaganda exposed for the dangerous lies that they are:
Thanks for posting this link, Mercedes. This is actually the data I referred to in our interview today so I’m glad anyone who is curious can click and see just how few cases of voter fraud occurred in their state during the 38 year span of this data base.
A few facts… https://t.co/z5HqXr4t2p
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 5, 2020
Also consider that in 2016 there were only 62 cases of voter fraud across the country (according to Heritage). Then consider that there have been 155,000+ deaths from coronavirus in the last six months.
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 5, 2020
Voter fraud of any kind is statistically negligible, as the Heritage database you link to makes clear. It certainly doesn’t seem worth the time and effort you or @realdonaldtrump spend knocking mail-in ballots. It’s logical to conclude that you have another objective.
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 5, 2020