A Donald Trump ally completely hijacked a CNN segment Thursday morning, denying that Trump refused to say in the final presidential debate that he’d accept the results of the election and spewing an impressive amount of misinformation about voter fraud.
Betsy McCaughey, known for invoking Beyoncé lyrics to defend Trump’s infamous hot mic tape, didn’t even let host Carol Costello ask any questions before she began rallying against the characterization that Trump had refused to say he’d accept the results of the election.
“First of all he did not say he would refuse to accept,” McCaughey said after being introduced. “That’s the distortion. He said wait and see.”
“Wait and see,” she continued. “That’s different from refusing.”
From there the panel devolved into chaos, as McCaughey continued to insist that there is widespread voter fraud in elections, while CNN contributor Sally Kohn and Costello tried to explain to her that there is no evidence for that assertion.
“This nation has been victimized by rampant election fraud,” McCaughey said.
“No, no, no,” Kohn protested.
“So much evidence of it this year,” McCaughey continued. “Don’t say it’s not true. I’d like to cite the evidence. Just a moment—”
“We have cited the evidence so many times on CNN,” Costello said.
“This is irresponsible and dangerous and reckless,” Kohn said.
At one point, McCaughey inexplicably brought up New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D).
“The New York City election commissioner said the other day there is rampant fraud in New York,” McCaughey said. “And Mayor de Blasio said ‘shut up, kid, the incumbent always protects the system.'”
“I can’t. There’s no evidence—there’s no evidence of voter fraud,” Costello said.
“The cooperative congressional research report cited by The Washington Post points out that somewhere between 2 percent and 5 percent—” McCaughey began (that figure was not cited in the Post story, which noted that many experts were critical of the report in the first place).
“Betsy please, I can’t. I can’t. That’s not true,” Costello said. “I’m going to have to cut this interview short.”
“You don’t want people to hear the evidence? Facts,” she added.
Watch below via CNN:
From The Economist, the crux of the matter.
The business of outrage
This is one person whose dignity was lost well before Trump came on to the scene.
If she started up before the host even asked a question, I would have immediately cut her off. But it’s CNN…so who knows if there are standards.
Lawyers: If these statements are followed by a refusal of Trump to acknowledge the results of the election, at which point might McCaughey and Conway be guilty of a crime? This talk seems perilously close to sedition to me, but IANAL.
These Trump apologists never shut up. The better the argument is against them, the louder they get.
I didn’t see the end of the clip because it cut off, but I hope Costello ended by coughing “BULLSHIT!”