Tuesday on CNN, anchor Brianna Keilar had a contentious interview with President Donald Trump’s adviser Mercedes Schlapp on mail-in voting.
Keilar said, “You know the biggest example of ballot harvesting happens bid a Republican operative in North Carolina in a Republican race.”
Schlapp said, “Look, it’s not acceptable with any party. We shall not allow for any election fraud for either Democrats or Republicans. My question to you is, who won the congressional districts in New York? We don’t know, because we fundamentally moved into this mail-in voting and we know that, for example, in the case of —”
Keilar said, “That has nothing to do with fraud. New York has nothing to do with fraud, Mercedes. What do you say to that?”
Schlapp said, “Well, because we’re looking at the fact that you’re to go through these mail-in ballots takes a lot of scrutiny. They have to take time to review it. That’s why you’ve seen the delay. That’s why you’ve seen that we have not had—”
Keilar said, “That’s not fraud.”
Schlapp continued, “On the congressional district, that’s still an issue. There’s two separate issues here, to your point. There’s the fraud issue, that we know exists. We want to preserve election integrity and let me finish.”
Keilar said, “Statistically insignificant.”
Schlapp said, “I would like to finish.”
Keilar said, “No, no, no. I’ve got to stop you. You brought up New York. Fraud, in general, statistically insignificant. New York, you were talking about fraud. You talked about New York. It’s not fraud, Mercedes.”
Schlapp said, “Okay. Let’s go ahead and put it into two different buckets. There is mail-in fraud that has happened in certain states.”
Keilar said, “Statistically insignificant, statistically insignificant.”
After a long back and forth, Schlapp said, “For both sides, for this nation, for the sake of America, we need to make sure that every vote matters. And it is why it is important that we get this right.”
Keilar said, “Mercedes Mercedes, Mercedes, you just said that everybody, just stating that a priority should be for people to practice their rights as Americans and vote and look if their registered voters, that is their right. So why are you talking down, villainizing mail-in voting which would give people the ability to practice their right as an American and vote.”
Schlapp said, “I’m going to ask you again, do you think it is okay after November 3rd to be able to cast a ballot three days after or seven days after the election?”
Keilar said, “Mercedes, you’re saying that voter fraud is a thing, and I’m telling you that it is not. And you’re muddying the waters. And I also want to —Don’t you worry that that is going to actually hurt you? Isn’t that to the point why the president has said— Mercedes, Mercedes, Mercedes? This is just pointless, okay. This is pointless. I get it. You’re just saying a bunch of crap, OK. You’re saying a bunch of crap.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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