By Joseph Curl
George Stephanopoulos, the former press secretary for Bill Clinton turned ABC host, came out of the chute fast when he sat down with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday’s “This Week” political talk show.
“Senator Paul, let me begin with a threshold question for you. This election was not stolen, do you accept that fact?”
Paul most definitely did not accept that fact.
“Well, what I would say is that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur, we never had any presentation in court where we actually looked at the evidence. Most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, which is a procedural way of not actually hearing the question. There were several states in which the law was changed by the Secretary of State and not the state legislature.”
“To me, those are clearly unconstitutional, and I think there’s still a chance that those actually do finally work their way up to the Supreme Court. Courts traditionally and historically don’t like to hear election questions. But yes. Were there people who voted twice? Were there dead people who voted? Were there illegal aliens who voted? Yes, and we should get to the bottom of it,” Paul said.
“I’ll give you an example. In my state, when we had a Democrat Secretary of State, she refused, even under federal order, to purge the rolls of illegal voters. We got a Republican Secretary of State and he purged the rules.”
But Stephanopoulos cut in, saying: “I have to stop you there. No election is perfect. But there were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court, all were dismissed. Every state certified the results.”
The two talked over each other for half a minute until Stephanopoulos said: “The Department of Justice led by William Barr said there’s no widespread evidence of fraud. Can’t you just say the words, this election –”
Paul broke in to say “no.”
“What I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections, and 75 percent of Republicans agree with me, is that we do need to look at election integrity, and we need to see if we can restore confidence in the elections,” the senator said.
The two crosstalked again until Paul said: “Hey, George. George. George. Where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything’s a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything. Historically what would happen is if said that I thought that there was fraud, you would interview someone else who said there wasn’t. But now you insert yourself in the middle and say that the absolute … fact is that everything that I’m saying is a lie.
“Hold on a second,” the host said, adding that Trump “said the election was stolen. This election was not stolen. The results were certified in every single state … after count and recounts.”
But Paul said not so. “You’re saying that absolutely it was — you’re saying there was no fraud and it’s all been investigated, and that’s just not true.”
The two again argued about who was saying what, when Paul said: “You say we’re all liars. You just simply say we’re all liars.”
Then Paul got specific.
“In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of absentee votes had only the name on them and no address. Historically those were thrown out, this time they weren’t. They made special accommodations because they said, oh, it’s a pandemic and people forgot what their address was.”
“So they changed the law after the fact. That is wrong, that’s unconstitutional. And I plan on spending the next two years going around state to state and fixing these problems and I won’t be cowed by liberals in the media who say, there’s no evidence here and you’re a liar if you talk about election fraud. No, let’s have an open debate. It’s a free country,” Paul said.
Stephanopoulos said: “There is no widespread evidence of election fraud that overturned that results. That was stated as well by the Department of Justice led by President Trump’s attorney general. In Wisconsin, there were counts and recounts.”
Paul broke in again to say: “It was never studied. Even that’s not true. Even that’s not true. Even that’s not true.”
“There’s been no examination, thorough examination of all the states to see what problems we had and see if they could fix them. Now, let me say to be clear, I voted to certify the state electors because I think it would be wrong for Congress to overturn that.”
“But at the same time, I’m not willing just to sit here and say, oh, everybody on the Republican side is a liar and there is no fraud. No, there were lots of problems and there were secretaries of state who illegally changed the law and that needs to be fixed. And I’m going to work hard to fix it. And I won’t be cowed by people saying, oh, you’re a liar,” Paul said.
“That’s the problem with the media today is they say all Republicans are liars, and everything we say is a lie. There are two sides to every story. Interview somebody on the other side, but don’t insert yourself into the story to say we’re all liars, because we do think there’s some fraud and the election needs to be fixed.”
But Stephanopoulos said, “Sir, there are not — there are not two sides to this story. This has been looked in every single state.”
“Sure there are,” Paul said. “There are two sides to every story. George, you’re forgetting who you are. You’re forgetting who you are as a journalist if you think there’s only one side. You’re inserting yourself into the story to say I’m a liar because I want to look at election fraud and I want to look at secretaries of state who illegally changed the voter laws without the permission of their state legislatures. That is incontrovertible, it happened.”
“And you can’t just sweep it under the rug and say, ‘Oh, nothing to see here, and everybody is a liar and you’re a fool if you bring this up.’ You’re inserting yourself into the story. A journalist would hear both sides and there are two sides of a story,” he said.
The above demonstrates that we live in a corrupt, Marxist state.
The installation of our first dictator swept aside our basic democratic processes and due process, to the applause of those sheep too afraid to admit they are wrong.
Paul, as usually, offers logic and rational thought in the face of cowardly, un-elected partisans like Stephie.
Good for Paul, he caved when we needed him to air some of the election irregularities, unfortunate he has no real snuff a part time spine no longer makes it.
I don’t agree with many of Paul’s positions, but I do respect his dedication to his views, consistency and honesty. I this case, he is absolutely correct… about both the election and Stephanopoulos’ lack of integrity and objectivity. Paul even supports the right of others to disagree with HIM.
Stephanopoulos wasn’t trying to interview Paul and get views and details out in the open; all he wanted was another Republican on record saying there was no fraud, no evidence of fraud and no possibility the election was turned. Nothing exposes the doubts Democrats have in the integrity of the election like how obsessed they are with crushing any mention of the massive amounts of evidence the fix was in.
It’s not like Democrats have some kind of fundamental objection to challenging election results; they do it every time a Republican wins. They simply fear open discussion of the evidence for fear the truth will be exposed.
Was the election stolen? Maybe, maybe not. Was there massive fraud? Beyond any argument. To prevent it from recurring, the accusations need to be thoroughly investigated, the facts determined and corrective action prescribed.
That is, if anyone actually WANTS legitimate elections anymore.
Rand Paul should lead the investigation. He should hand pick the members. Until there is a legitimate investigation, that election will always be illegitimate.
Always.
@Deplorable Me: The Senate and congressional investigations lead nowhere, useless waste of taxpayers dime. Rand wimped out on the 6th when it would have been exposed to millions, not that there would have been a change in the outcome just the lying media exposed in their theater.
With the CCP slushing campaign funding through tech oligarchs we had our last duly elected President.
@kitt: There are few in Congress I trust. None of them are Trump, but Rand Paul, Cruz and Nunes are among the few. Other actual investigators will feed the information to them, but a Congressional investigation is the only way to implement changes and safeguards… if, at this point, that is even possible.
@Deplorable Me: They found all they spying and lying what became of it?
They had their chance to expose the facts to the Nation on the 6th, we dont need men with part time spines. They were the last line of defense and folded like cheap China made suits. Do you want to be represented by gelded political prancer Boys? What we dont need is someone who melts at the stinkeye glance of Chucky or Piglosi.
Everyone of them that backed down needs to be retired, theres no fight in them.
The Bastards are about to designate Trump voters domestic terrorists we need real men at the front lines.
@kitt: Who else?
@Deplorable Me: Rebuild from the ground up.
@kitt: You’re not going to ever do that if elections continue to be fraudulent. Only LAWS (which, of course, assumes strict enforcement) can stop that and only the Congress can do it. It takes state legislations as well, but they are unreliable as well.
I know it depends on Trump’s unfinished job of flushing the DC toilet, but that’s what we got. Perhaps the THREAT of rebuilding from the ground up will provide the support we need.
@Deplorable Me: A threat is no good unless you are willing to pull the trigger. How long do we allow them to make laws only to exempt themselves? Seems if we sat them down in a classroom and gave them a pop quiz on the constitution very few of them would pass. We could make it fun open book with the 1619 project education materials.