Jake Tapper Confronts Steve Scalise on Trump Mail-In Voting Comments: He Keeps Saying ‘Irresponsible’ and Untrue Things
CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and questioned him on a number of claims President Donald Trump has made about mail-in voting.
Tapper said the president’s first remarks after being formally nominated Monday were “rambling” and that he “told a number of lies about mail-in voting.” He asked, “Does that concern you at all? Would you not rather have a president who is disciplined and optimistic as opposed to one who is kind of rambling and just doing his list of grievances.”
Scalise immediately said it’s not accurate to call Trump’s comments on mail-in voting lies. He pointed to one case in Louisiana regarding voter fraud, but Tapper responded, “That wasn’t by vote by mail.”
Scalise said national mail-in voting would be “reckless” and “a recipe for disaster.”
“That’s not happening in this election though,” Tapper said. “There are nine states that do universal mail-in which is mailing a ballot to everybody who’s registered. Your fellow congressman Garcia, a Republican from a district in California, he was elected in one of these states… sending out vote by mail. He won. Utah has vote by mail, they’ve had it for years. There really just is not evidence that there is widespread fraud.”
As they went back and forth on the subject, Tapper added, “He’s literally said today that if the Democrats win, it is because it was rigged and the election was stolen. An incredibly irresponsible thing to say. The secretaries of state in two of the states that have universal vote by mail, Washington state and Oregon, are Republicans. California had vote by mail. Your colleague Congressman Garcia was elected that way. Nevada, the secretary of state is Republican… I understand you don’t like the idea of universal vote by mail as Nancy Pelosi is proposing it, but I’m talking about existing policies and that President Trump is saying they’re going to be corrupt inherently and there is no evidence of that.”
You can watch the full interview above, via CNN.
