On her Tuesday afternoon show, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell gave former Virginia Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe an unchallenged forum to repeat discredited claims that Georgia Republicans have engaged in "voter suppression" targeting African American voters.
At 12:43 p.m. Eastern, Mitchell brought up the issue of "major voter suppression" in Georgia and fretted about Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams as the MSNBC host posed: "What about Stacey Abrams in Georgia? This is a major voter suppression issue. The Legal Defense Fund and others are all in there -- the ACLU. Can she pull this out? This is a tied race, but she's got a pretty bad hand that's been dealt her."
During his response, McAuliffe repeated the discredited suggestion that about 50,000 voter registration applications were put on "pending" status because of picky "exact match" issues. McAuliffe: "But you're right. The voter suppression tactics are going on. They disenfrancised 50,000 folks. You know, if you had 'Terrence R. McAuliffe,' and I didn't put a period after the 'R,' they threw my ballot out. I mean, that's crazy."
He also seemed to be mixing up the issue of several hundred absentee ballots in Gwinett County, Georgia, that local officials had wanted to throw out because of problems with the signature, as opposed to the 53,000 registration applications that were first discussed by AP which can be easily cleared up on Election Day if voters bring their photo ID with them.
After the former Virginia governor complained about an effort in Virginia to require showing a photo ID to get an absentee ballot, Mitchell did not question any of his claims but instead pivoted to discussing whether former Vice President Joe Biden will run for President.
