On Thursday, CNN’s Jake Tapper held a panel discussion regarding President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the Florida elections. The panel included former Trump campaign advisor David Urban, former Obama White House Communications Director Jen Psaki, and The Daily Beast’s Jackie Kucinich.
Tapper began by saying: “This looks like it’s gonna end with Republicans winning the Senate race and winning the governor’s office — we don’t know, it’s not final yet, but it looks as though. And yet there are Republicans who continue to cast aspersions about the process.”
He then played a clip of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) saying the following on Breitbart Radio on Tuesday:
If the Democrats are able to learn now what techniques work and don’t work, what transparency laws are going to be followed and which ones aren’t, then it gives them a roadmap of how to steal the election from Donald Trump in 2020.
Urban responded, noting that because of the “breakdown” in Florida’s Broward County, as well as the lack of transparency surrounding the recount there, some have been emboldened to make statements like Rep. Gaetz’s.
Psaki then said:
I think, David, there’s no question if we all look at Broward County, it’s a little horrifying that 18 years later we’re still looking at this, and the ballots are confusing, and Democrats and Republicans can agree on that. However, this is specifically language that President Trump used back when he was running for president, threatening that the election was [gonna be] rigged, questioning institutions. And you can see this person as a loyalist, this member of Congress as a loyalist, trying to seed doubt already, two years before the election, about the outcome of the presidential election.
Following Psaki’s remark, Tapper pointed to Democrats who are also “sowing doubts about the integrity of the process.”
Well, take a listen. Republicans are not actually the only ones trashing the other party and sowing doubts about the integrity of the process. Take a look at what’s being said about the Georgia governor’s race, which is also not over yet. Democrat Stacey Abrams still trails Republican Brian Kemp; the race has not been called.
Tapper then played a clip in which Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) states: “If Stacey Abrams doesn’t win in Georgia, they stole it. It’s clear. It’s clear.” Tapper also played a clip in which Hillary Clinton states: “If [Abrams] had a fair election, she already would have won.”
“Is that really any different from what the Matt Gaetzs and Donald Trumps of the world are doing?” Tapper asked the panel.
In response, both Jackie Kucinich and Jen Psaki claimed that alleged “voter suppression” in Georgia — the closure of polling places as well as Georgia gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp’s support of voter identification laws, on which Erick Erickson and The Daily Wire reported here and here, respectively — is one way in which Democratic allegations are different from Republican allegations.
Kucinich, however, noted that at this point, there isn’t a difference between what is being said by Democratic and Republican leaders. She also pointed toward Arizona as the “gold standard” of how election officials should handle close elections.
Psaki added that Sherrod Brown’s comments, though “ham-handed,” were in reference to “gerrymandering” and “voter suppression.” Psaki disagreed with Urban, saying that Brown’s comments are not the same as those being made by Republicans because he brought up “real issues.”
Here’s the full video (pertinent portion begins at the 3:14 mark):