Tapper Grills Cory Gardner (But Not Chuck Schumer) Over Florida Vote: ‘Any Specific Evidence at All’ of Fraud, Theft?
On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, host Jake Tapper grilled Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) about accusations of fraud and attempts to “steal” the election in Florida. Tapper repeatedly asked for specific evidence of “criminal” activity, and Gardner cited major procedural issues and questionable decisions made by Democrats, as well as the Florida courts ruling in favor of Republicans against the county boards committing those errors.
“A statement from your organization the NRSC says of Florida, quote, ‘it’s clear the Democrats vote here is not to count every vote fairly but to steal an election’. In a tweet, President Trump accused Democrats in Florida of committing fraud. Governor Rick Scott, who is running for Senate, has made similar comments,” said Tapper. “Is there any specific evidence at all of anyone committing fraud or trying to steal the election, trying to change the outcome?”
“Well here’s the specific evidence we have,” replied Gardner, “we have a court in Florida that has said there was a violation of the Florida Constitution. We have a court that has directed certain better behavior out of the Palm County election supervisors. We have courts that are saying follow the law that is not being followed.”
“We know they’re not following the law. They certainly weren’t following the law,” said Gardner. “They weren’t posting when they were supposed to be about the results of ballots coming in. They weren’t providing the canvas, the total number of ballots that had been cast, and courts had agreed with us on those points. So I think there’s clear evidence that the Constitution was violated and a court in Florida has said the same.”
“It’s true what you’re saying about transparency and about meeting deadlines,” said Tapper (which is a violation of the law). “But Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement said Friday they haven’t even received any allegations of criminal activity, of fraud, of stealing, and the Secretary of State’s office just said yesterday there is ‘no evidence of criminal activity’, so, it just seems like the rhetoric we’re hearing…”
“Violating the constitution doesn’t rise to the level of concern in Florida?” Gardner interrupted.
“I’m not saying that,” said Tapper. The exchange continued back and forth for some time, as Tapper continued to ask for specific evidence of criminal activity and Garnder cited the court ruling that the constitution was being violated (which is breaking the law) and various other problems with the vote.
Tapper said that there are “legitimate areas of concern about the behavior of election officials” in Florida, but that there is a big difference between that and “fraud, and stealing, and theft of an election.” Gardner said that “every vote legally cast should be counted, and every vote legally cast should be counted the same whether it’s Miami or Pensacola.”
Earlier in the show, Democrat Chuck Schumer was on with Tapper and they also discussed the election. Schumer said that Rick Scott and Donald Trump are “interfering” with the election to prevent Sen. Bill Nelson from winning. Schumer was not asked to provide “any specific evidence at all” to back up his own claim of trying to “steal the election or change the outcome.
After the exchange in the above clip, Tapper asked Schumer why it isn’t understandable that people would have concerns about the integrity of the vote in Broward and Palm Beach Counties considering the many problems, to which Schumer replied that it going slowly isn’t evidence of any fraud, though Schumer did not address any of actual problems that have required intervention of the courts in Florida.
Watch the clips above, courtesy of CNN.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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