MSNBC's Shaquille Brewster reported on Wednesday's MSNBC Live that Georgia's Cobb County has decided to have fewer polling stations available for the Senate runoff elections than it did in the general, but that didn't stop MSNBC Republican Rick Tyler from accusing the state's governor and secretary of state of voter suppression less than two minutes later.
Brewster told host Chris Jansing, "I spoke to an official here in Cobb County, just a few minutes ago and he really pushed back on the idea that this is a nefarious attempt at suppressing votes, and said is instead more a reflection on the strain of resources in Cobb County."
Brewster's also relayed the information that Cobb County had a record number of early voting locations, but the election and subsequent recounts drained the county of resources which is only exacerbated by a worker shortage due to the upcoming holidays.
Immediately after Brewster was finished, Jansing turned to Tyler and asked, "We are in an even worse situation in this pandemic than we were months ago. What do you make of this latest move in Georgia? Do you buy the fact that they just can't get enough people to work?"
Tyler responded, "No. I think it's an obvious attempt to keep fewer people from accessing the polls."
He also wondered why Georgia would want to do this in the aftermath of the presidential election. Completely missing what Brewster just reported, Tyler accused Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of not giving Georgians a fair election while cynically declaring their opposition to Trump's effort to decertify the state's presidential results as personally motivated:
Georgia has already embarrassed itself more than once, but they did certify this election three times for Joe Biden and you would think they'd want to do everything precisely correct to maintain their reputation. That's what they're trying to preserve here is their reputation, that this is a free and fair election and that the governor and the secretary of state who have both chastised the president for calling out -- for undermining the election, which could lead to violence and danger. But let's get something straight: the governor and the secretary of state seem to only have called out the president when it affected them personally, and that's the message the Republican Party needs to understand, is all the Republicans, and Mitt Romney seems to be the sole exception, need to speak out.
Maybe one reason Republicans refuse to speak out is even when those like Kemp and Raffensperger have done is the media still questions their motives and still calls them vote suppressors.
While condemning Republicans for not accepting the results of the president election, Tyler laid the groundwork for delegitimizing the runoffs, "The difference between a banana republic and a free and fair democratic institution and a constitutional republic is the fact that people trust that when they go to vote, their vote will be tabulated accurately."
For MSNBC, delegitimizing elections is fine so long as you support Democrats. Here's why the Democrats want maximum turnout in Cobb County:
Cobb County helped Joe Biden become the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Georgia since 1992. Biden beat President Trump in Cobb 56 percent to 42 percent....
In the Senate contests last month, Ossoff bested Perdue by 11 percentage points in Cobb County, while Warnock got 38 percent of the vote to 25 percent for Loeffler in a field of 21 candidates for the special election.
This segment was sponsored by Fidelity.
Here is a transcript of the December 9 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
11:43 AM ET
SHAQUILLE BREWSTER: Hi there, Chris, well I spoke to an official here in Cobb County, just a few minutes ago and he really pushed back on the idea that this is a nefarious attempt at suppressing votes, and said is instead more a reflection on the strain of resources in Cobb County. They were very proud to have a record amount of early voting locations ahead of the general election when they had 11 early voting locations, but they said after the general election and after the two recounts in the state, remember one by hand and one by machine, they were unable to repurpose enough staff to keep that number up for this round of voting. So they're saying, it's just a strain of resources especially around the holiday season when early voting is taking place, but talking to activists in voter rights groups, they say the application, the effect is still the same, that it will make it harder for some people to vote. I spoke to one organizer who texted me this morning saying this is clear voter suppression. I also asked the CEO of new Georgia project, a project working to recruit and mobilize voters if they are buying, if they understand the explanation coming from officials. Listen to what she told me.
…
11:45
CHRIS JANSING: Hey Rick, look, here we are. We are in an even worse situation in this pandemic than we were months ago. What do you make of this latest move in Georgia? Do you buy the fact that they just can't get enough people to work?
RICK TYLER: No. I think it's an obvious attempt to keep fewer people from accessing the polls. Georgia has already embarrassed itself more than once, but they did certify this election three times for Joe Biden and you would think they'd want to do everything precisely correct to maintain their reputation. That's what they're trying to preserve here is their reputation, that this is a free and fair election and that the governor and the secretary of state who have both chastised the president for calling out -- for undermining the election, which could lead to violence and danger. But let's get something straight: the governor and the secretary of state seem to only have called out the president when it affected them personally, and that's the message the Republican Party needs to understand, is all the Republicans, and Mitt Romney seems to be the sole exception, need to speak out. Otherwise we are not going to have a country if we do not have the confidence in our election. The difference between a banana republic and a free and fair democratic institution and a constitutional republic is the fact that people trust that when they go to vote, their vote will be tabulated accurately.
