During a softball interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell asked about a conspiracy theory being pushed by presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden that President Trump would try to use the coronavirus pandemic to “kick back the election” in November. Rather dismiss the unfounded claim, the supposed journalist wondered how Pelosi could prevent the imagined scheme.
“I do want to ask you that Joe Biden raised the issue, he thinks the President is trying to kick back the election and somehow not have the – create a rationale not to hold the election on November 3rd, as scheduled, if there’s a resurgence of the virus in the fall,” Mitchell touted. She then made it clear that she shared Biden’s fear: “It’s a constitutional mandate. Are you sure that you can – and Democrats – can make sure that we have the election as scheduled?”
Pelosi didn’t waste any time denouncing the fictional scenario and urging her colleagues to “stand up for our country, our Constitution, and our democracy” against the nefarious plan – which Biden invented out of thin air:
I know there’s a danger and people are scared, but we must and we will. This is – he has done so much to undermine our democracy, to undermine our rights, dishonoring the Constitution, undermining the integrity of our voting process, denigrating our newcomers to our country, just degrading our environment, our values, and the rest. So he has done a lot to undermine who we are as America, but the fact is, we cannot allow him to do that to our democracy. That will not happen. And God willing, maybe some Republicans might even stand up for our country, our Constitution, and our democracy as well. I think they will.
Ironically, just minutes earlier in the interview, Pelosi was denouncing the United States Supreme Court for “acting like party hacks” on behalf of Republicans for ruling that the Wisconsin election proceed as scheduled.
As Hot Air pointed out on Friday, “Even Snopes shot down this particular paranoid conspiracy theory, and notes another constitutional provision that would moot the entire idea anyway.”
However, liberal activists like Mitchell never let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory being pushed by the Democratic Party.
Here is a transcript of the April 24 exchange:
12:51 PM ET
(...)
NANCY PELOSI: When the Supreme Court, acting like party hacks, said that the state of Wisconsin had to vote on that day and limited the importance of voting by mail, they were doing a Republican agenda. But the fact is, is that having those people vote at that time was as if we invited them all to the Mardi Gras, probably caused more infections, sad to say. People were standing in line for a very long time, keeping social distancing, but nonetheless having to be out when they should be home.
So this is about that as well. And this issue of vote by mail and also saying that every person who’s registered to vote should receive a ballot and that we should have same-day registration for those who have not registered to vote, opening the process, this is what our country is about. The vote, the sacred right to vote. And I’m a former state chair of the party, and our purpose was always to remove obstacles to participation, whether they were Democrats, Republicans, independents, whatever they were.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Madam Speaker, I know time is so short. I do want to ask you that Joe Biden raised the issue, he thinks the President is trying to kick back the election and somehow not have the – create a rationale not to hold the election on November 3rd, as scheduled, if there’s a resurgence of the virus in the fall. It’s a constitutional mandate. Are you sure that you can – and Democrats – can make sure that we have the election as scheduled?
PELOSI: We must. And that is – I know there’s a danger and people are scared, but we must and we will. This is – he has done so much to undermine our democracy, to undermine our rights, dishonoring the Constitution, undermining the integrity of our voting process, denigrating our newcomers to our country, just degrading our environment, our values, and the rest. So he has done a lot to undermine who we are as America, but the fact is, we cannot allow him to do that to our democracy. That will not happen. And God willing, maybe some Republicans might even stand up for our country, our Constitution, and our democracy as well. I think they will.
(...)
