CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joined Don Lemon on Friday's CNN Tonight for a very solemn segment about voting and the Republican Party's alleged war on it. According to Toobin, it is GOP policy to make sure Democrats don't vote.
Referring to the controversy of USPS funding, Toobin began by sardonically asking Toobin, "What the hell is going on? How are you, by the way?"
TOOBIN: I'm good. This is scary, Don. I got to say, you know, it's been Republican Party policy for decades to try to stop Democrats from voting. Whether it's closing polling places in the South, whether it's photo I.D. requirements, limiting early voting, limiting absentee voting. This has been national policy. But it's usually kind of dressed up as something other than it is.
Even CNN's own reporters have previously poured cold water on the closed polling places theory, not to mention the long list of other things that Democrats paint as unreasonable, like requiring require photo identification.
Toobin saw sinister motives behind everything, including the current battle over the post office. "There's not even any pretense about what the president is doing now. He's saying he wants to starve the Postal Service because he wants Democrats not to vote. He said that. This is not an interpretation."
In fact, it is an interpretation. Trump said denying such funds would eliminate possibilities for fraud, not Democratic votes. Toobin could have tried to rebut that argument, but instead went for conspiracy mongering that is more common in leftist corners of the internet.
Toobin continued by lamenting that there's not much House Democrats can do about it, because, "You can't force the Postal Service to do its job. Only the people running the Postal Service can force them to do their job, and the people running it seem determined to try to limit participation in this election."
Lemon could reply, "Wow. Wow," after which Toobin returned to Lemon's other question, "And how are you?" After some laughs at their own gallows humor they moved on to other topics.
This segment was sponsored by Mr. Clean.
Here is a transcript for the August 14 show:
CNN
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
11:10 PM ET
DON LEMON: I want to get to CNN’s chief legal correspondent now Jeffrey Toobin now. Jeffrey, what the hell is going on? How are you, by the way?
JEFFREY TOOBIN: I'm good. I'm good. This is scary, Don. I got to say, you know, it's been Republican Party policy for decades to try to stop Democrats from voting. Whether it's closing polling places in the South, whether it's photo I.D. requirements, limiting early voting, limiting absentee voting. This has been national policy. But it's usually kind of dressed up as something other than it is. There's not even any pretense about what the president is doing now. He's saying he wants to starve the postal service because he wants Democrats not to vote. He said that. This is not an interpretation. This is what he said and the chilling thing about it, there's really not a lot that Democrats or anyone can do about it. He's the president. They run the administration. There are only 80 or so days until the election. There are not subpoenas that can be issued from the House. You can't force the postal service to do its job. Only the people running the postal service can force them to do their job, and the people running it seem determined to try to limit participation in this election.
LEMON: Wow. Wow.
TOOBIN: And how are you?
LEMON: Other than that, how is the play? You know how that goes, right?
TOOBIN: Right.
