Ben Ginsberg, a prominent conservative lawyer who was on George W. Bush’s vote recount legal team in 2000, came to Jesus on Tuesday, denouncing President Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping comments about mail-in voting. The President, he claimed, was casting a shadow over what Ginsberg described as legitimate efforts by Republicans’ to stamp out mass election fraud — something Ginsberg also now admits isn’t really a thing.
“The truth is that after decades of looking for illegal voting, there’s no proof of widespread fraud,” Ginsberg wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. “At most, there are isolated incidents — by both Democrats and Republicans. Elections are not rigged.”
The lawyer laid out how Trump has shattered Republicans’ talk of “election security” by parroting the debunked claim that mail-in voting causes mass election fraud, only to tell his supporters to double vote by mailing their ballots and then voting again in person on Election Day.
“The President’s words make his and the Republican Party’s rhetoric look less like sincere concern — and more like transactional hypocrisy designed to provide an electoral advantage,” Ginsberg wrote.
He warned fellow Republicans that Trump’s remarks are undermining their legal arguments in some 40 court battles for establishing restrictive voting laws, which Republicans argue are necessary to stave off election fraud, while critics point out that the laws disenfranchise nonwhite voters.
“Republicans need to rethink their arguments in many of the cases in which they are involved — quickly,” Ginsberg wrote. “Otherwise, they risk harming the fundamental principle of our democracy: that all eligible voters must be allowed to cast their ballots.”
Ginsberg’s op-ed marks an about face from the longtime GOP lawyer’s previous stance on voter fraud, which at one point drove him to argue that the total results of the 2009 Minnesota Senate race, during which Ginsberg represented then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), were illegitimate due to alleged fraud.
Besides Bush and Coleman, Ginsberg’s long list of GOP clientele includes Mitt Romney, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), and the Republican National Committee.
OT Biden’s speaking in Michigan right now. It’s hard to see it but he brought a very, very, very large hammer with him, and it appears to have Toadglans’ name on it.
Hmm. “Legitimate efforts to stamp out mass election fraud — which he admits isn’t really a thing”?
Sounds like he needs more psilocybin.
“The President’s words make his and the Republican Party’s rhetoric look less like sincere concern — and more like transactional hypocrisy designed to provide an electoral advantage,”
The facts and evidence already did that anyway, Ben.
"they risk harming the fundamental principle of our democracy: that all eligible voters must be allowed to cast their ballots.”
Feature, not a bug, Ben. That’s literally their intent.
So he’s upset that Trump is spilling the beans?
These people don’t seem to realize that proof is not an issue as far as Trump and his henchmen claiming voter fraud is concerned. Claiming voter fraud is their only hope of contesting the election. The Trump campaign is no longer talking about winning the election, but about staying in power. When Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes in 2016, he baselessly claimed that 5 million people voted illegally or he would have won the popular vote too. When he looses by 10 million votes in 2020, he will claim that 15 million people voted illegally. There will be no proof, but the claim will be made nonetheless. It’s what they do. The only defense is to ensure that the margin of victory is so huge that it can’t be legitimately challenged. Because no matter how large of small it is, they will contest it.