Florida Congressman Mike Waltz left one CNN host struggling to keep up, as he shot down her Democrat agenda talking points as guest on her Sunday night show. CNN’s Pamela Brown brought on the Republican so she could lecture him about his party pushing “new voting restrictions.” But the tables turned as Waltz used the segment to expose the Democrats’ radical H.R.1 bill while defeating Brown’s arguments about GOP voting laws.
The host opened the interview with a snarky comment bashing Florida: “COVID restrictions are nearly nonexistent there, but restrictions on voting are in the works,” she said before introducing the Florida congressman. Waltz wasn’t even going to let that nasty sarcasm slide. He cheerily noted to the anchor that DisneyWorld, Orlando attractions and their schools have been open “for months” without major breakouts: “We all want to follow the data, but I would suggest a lot of these lockdown states are not doing that.”
It didn’t get better for CNN after that. As the journalist tried to twist Waltz’s commitment to election integrity as a sign he was a 2020 election truther, he shot back:
You said Florida is tightening up the laws. But Florida used to be a laughingstock of elections, and now we had a very clear election because we did things differently in 16, and 18 and will continue to improve in ‘20--and so I just kinda reject the premise that Florida is already tightening its rules, what it's doing is making it better, and I think if those other states do so then we’ll have a much cleaner and much more integral election going forward with voter integrity.
As Brown continued to badger him about new Florida voting laws, the congressman schooled her on how Florida already had stricter rules for mail-in-voting than other states and they were just making the process even safer.
“We knew all of our numbers and all of our totals on election night. You contrast that with states who changed the rules with months in advance with unelected officials,” he noted, adding, “So, I think this notion that states don't have the right to improve their elections over time is just a fallacious one.” The Republican continued to dominate the conversation by schooling CNN’s viewers about Democrats’ radical federal election law that the media is spending much less time on than fearmongering over Republican state voting laws:
REP. MIKE WALTZ [R-FL]: [W]hy then the Democrats,, if everything is fine, want to make all states perform their elections the same with H.R.1. And include things that just don't make sense. Dropping the voting age to 16? Do we want teenagers voting?
PAMELA BROWN: Registering to vote.
WALTZ: Banning any state from requiring I.D. You know, I have to present an I.D. to get cigarettes or beer! We certainly should, for the integrity of the vote. So, if everything is fine, why are the Democrats cramming this, and I can tell you what is going on in Georgia is about politics. They are gaslighting these changes. They are gaslighting these changes and improvements and fearmongering calling them racist, calling them Jim Crow. So that had they can then justify getting rid of the filibuster, and then cram through H.R.1.
BROWN: Well, that's a --
WALTZ: Which will make it the nation vote like California and vote like New York.
As Brown turned to press Waltz on Georgia’s new voting legislation, Waltz called out CNN for flipping the script:
“But Gabriel [Sterling] and [Brian] Kemp were the same officials, CNN and the media and others were lauding when they pushed back on Trump and now it's a crisis and voter suppression and now it's racist. So I think there's a little bit of talking out of both sides of the mouth here,” he noted.
The CNN anchor huffed, “I'm not taking a position, I'm looking at the facts!”
There was more cross-talk as the two dueled over election laws. Waltz got to hammer this point home again about H.R.1, as Brown tried to change the subject to China and coronavirus:
“Their first bill, not immigration, not health care reform. Not transportation. Their number one priority, and if everything is fine, then why do they want to so dramatically change the way the entire nation votes?” he posed.
Carvana sponsored this segment, contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back page here.
Read the partial transcript below:
CNN Newsroom With Pamela Brown
3/28/2021
(...)
REP. MIKE WALTZ [R-FL]: [W]hy then the Democrats,, if everything is fine, want to make all states perform their elections the same with H.R.1. And include things that just don't make sense. Dropping the voting age to 16? Do we want teenagers voting?
PAMELA BROWN: Registering to vote.
WALTZ: Banning any state from requiring I.D. You know, I have to present an I.D. to get cigarettes or beer! We certainly should, for the integrity of the vote. So, if everything is fine, why are the Democrats cramming this, and I can tell you what is going on in Georgia is about politics. They are gaslighting these changes. They are gas ighting these changes and improvements and fearmongering calling them racist, calling them Jim Crow. So that had they can then justify getting rid of the filibuster, and then cram through H.R.1.
BROWN: Well, that's a --
WALTZ: Which will make it the nation vote like California and vote like New York
BROWN: You heard the governor say there was a crisis of confidence in all the issues based on a manufactured lie that the election was stolen. There were multiple recounts in Georgia, I mean, both sides have their arguments about the bill. I just interviewed Gabriel Sterling, Republican, in the Secretary of States' office last night and he conceded, yes had Donald Trump not lost Georgia they probably would not have done this. He said there was a punitive measure in the bill against the Secretary of State’s office --
WALTZ: He said that about one specific issue on his office.
BROWN: And I said that. I said that.
WALTZ: One specific issue. But Gabriel and Kemp were the same officials, CNN and the media and others were lauding when they pushed back on Trump and now it's a crisis and voter suppression and now it's racist. So I think there's a little bit of talking out of both sides of the mouth here.
BROWN: I'm not taking a position, I'm looking at the facts --
WALTZ: Fair enough.
BROWN: -- There's a record number of bills being passed through Republican legislatures. Hey, they were elected in the office.
WALTZ: It's in the Constitution.
[cross-talk]
WALTZ: And through the Democratic led Congress. Their first bill, not immigration, not health care reform. Not transportation. Their number one priority, and if everything is fine, then why do they want to so dramatically change the way the entire nation votes?
BROWN: If everything is fine, the same question goes. I would like to go to COVID and China too. The same question that could go again in Florida, where if it was so great, you have been doing mail in ballots and drop boxes--
WALTZ: Florida was a disaster years ago.
BROWN: It used to be years and years ago--
WALTZ: And we have improved every time.
BROWN: Okay, so, anyway, we could talk about that and by the way, Pennsylvania in 2019, the Republican legislature passed the mail-in ballots there. But we must move on. I like a lively debate and this certainly has been one Congressman Waltz. But I want to go to China...
