Howard Dean Cites ABC Correspondent as Evidence of Fraud in Iraqi Elections

October 23rd, 2005 11:26 AM

Many Americans that are truly concerned about bias in the media fear that what is reported by the press will immediately be accepted as fact by the citizenry regardless of accuracy. This morning on ABC’s “This Week,” Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean cited the opinion of an ABC News correspondent, Martha Raddatz, as evidence that rampant fraud occurred in the recent Iraq referendum (video link of Raddatz's comments to follow):

Dean: Secondly, on "Washington Week" this week Martha Raddatz from ABC said she had recorded on tape I believe that she saw a gentleman come in, fill out seven ballots, yes, yes, yes and stick them all in the box. If that's what we're fighting for in Iraq, we don't belong there.

Stephanopoulos: So we should pull out?

Dean: I said if that's what we're fighting for. If this election was corrupted it's time to figure out how to get out. What I think there is an intermediary position, we need to get through the next couple of elections, this one, we need to find out if this was an honest election or not apparently it wasn't certainly completely honest.

Stephanopoulos: Early indications are they believe there was no widespread fraud.

Dean: All I know is an ABC correspondent saw it and talked about it on television. That's what I know. Let's find out more. When you have 99% of the people voting yes, that's always some indication that things may not quite be exactly as they seem.

Video Link of Raddatz’s “Washington Week” Comments (thanks to Tim Graham for the tip)