If you ask me which president has most weaponized
their attorney general, I immediately think
of Donald Trump and William Barr.
William Barr has been a hatchet man for Donald
Trump, interfering in the Mueller investigation,
putting out that insane propaganda letter,
pretending as though the Mueller report was
going to completely exonerate Donald Trump,
despite specifically saying that it can't
do that.
William Barr has been a player with respect
to the protests that we've been seeing and
seeing and the use of force against protesters.
And William Barr yesterday was interviewed
by CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
And it is a veritable house of horrors.
This is one of the sickest interviews I've
seen.
And what's sick about it is that William Barr,
sometimes there are propaganda mouthpieces
who know that they need to sort of put a nice
coat of paint on their propaganda.
Right.
They need to dress it up.
They need to make it sparkle.
William Barr is not even pretending to care
about the brazen and disgusting nature of
how he is just going to get behind any crazy
notion Donald Trump brings up about protesters
or about vote by mail or whatever else.
So let's get right into it.
You've got to see this.
This is unbelievable.
Barr was asked by Wolf Blitzer what Trump
has.
Let me let me back up.
I'm getting a shot out of a cannon.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
Donald Trump has talked about the problem
with mail in ballots is a foreign country
could print off millions of them and submit
them.
And there's, of course, no evidence of that.
So Wolf Blitzer rightly asks William Barr,
what evidence do you have that set?
That's something foreign countries could do.
And William Barr simply says logic.
The answer is logic.
And Wolf Blitzer is visibly taken aback by
how stupid this argument is.
He's saying that I'm basing, as I've said
repeatedly, I'm basing that on logic.
Part logic.
But have you seen any evidence that a foreign
country is trying to interfere?
I'm saying, Natalie.
No, I'm saying all people are created about
foreign influence.
And if we use a ballot system with the system,
that's something that states are just now
trying to adopt.
It does leave open the possibility of counterfeiting,
counterfeiting ballots either by something
here or so.
You think a foreign country could do that?
I think anyone could do it.
Have you seen any evidence that they're trying
to do that?
But most things can be counterfeit.
That's why we go to the trouble of, you know,
kind of making our money the way we make it
now.
You know, should we have Minnesota print up
our money on on a regular parchment paper?
So, yeah, this is this is the same thing Mark
Meadows said to Jake Tapper, Trump's current
chief of staff.
He said, I haven't seen evidence that it's
not going on, which is, of course, one of
these completely indefeasible arguments, that
it doesn't really fall under actual argumentation
because it's completely indefeasible.
It's mumbo jumbo nonsense, to be perfectly
frank.
Now, then, Wolf Blitzer asked this.
I haven't seen a Wolf Blitzer interview for
a long time, but he did a good job of really
getting down to the heart of the matter on
a lot of these issues.
Wolf Blitzer asks Of the three countries,
China, Russia and Iran, which are kind of
the three that are thrown around as having
an interest in meddling in the election, not
necessarily in in, you know, in favor of the
same person.
But the evidence that China and Iran are interfering
is, of course, far less prevalent than that
of Russia.
And maybe you're not going to be surprised
that which one.
William Barr selects here.
Russia, China and Iran are seeking to interfere
in the U.S. presidential election for various
reasons.
But mostly they want to sow dissent in our
country, exacerbate racial tensions, et cetera,
like that of those three countries that the
intelligence community has pointed to, Russia,
China and Iran, which is the most assertive,
the most aggressive in this area.
I believe it's China, which when China.
China more than Russia right now.
Yes.
Why do you say that?
Because I've seen the intelligence.
That's what I've concluded.
What are they trying to do?
I'm going to discuss that.
But they're trying to help.
Whoo hoo!
I'm not going to get into their more aggressive
than Russia.
Yes.
Because U.S. intelligence could be trying
to influence the United States.
Yes.
Yeah, super convincing, right?
I mean, there.
This is a real opportunity to talk more generally
about interference and meddling.
And they could actually have had a conversation
about, listen, there's a long history of other
countries meddling in the elections of other
countries.
There's a long history of Americans trying
to exert our preferences at the high government
level on the elections of other countries.
And this is sort of an ongoing thing.
And what matters is we protect our system
from any meddling.
The problem with making that case for people
like William Barr is that William Barr and
Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump, they've
all had opportunities to strengthen our election
system so that it is less subject to the milit
manipulations of foreign countries.
They've not done it.
And of course, the speculation is they've
not done it because they think that on balance,
the meddling, including from Russia, is good
for Donald Trump.
That's the reality.
Instead, Baja says, oh, China's really the
worse one.
And it makes it sort of an adjudication of
China versus Russia.
The implication, of course, being that China
wants Biden to win, which is really a question
mark, but it's something that's been been
repeated, whereas Russia wants Trump to win.
The reason there's a sort of base rate fallacy
with these ideas that if X country wants Biden
to win, it's because Biden will be in their
pocket.
The reality is that most countries sorry,
most countries have an interest in the more
stable United States.
So China may well want Joe Biden to be president
instead of Trump because Trump is an unstable
maniac.
Iran may well want Biden instead of Trump
because Biden maybe would stick to his word
instead of how Donald Trump just bailed on
the Iran deal despite Iran not having done
anything wrong.
So just because a country prefers one candidate
over another doesn't mean that they have that
preference for nefarious reasons.
Russia specifically, we know because it's
in black and white and it's been in black
and white for decades.
Their goal to seize and grow their power globally
is to make Western democracies appear unstable.
And that's why they would support Donald Trump.
So there's a real apples to spark plugs comparison
going on here now, Wolf Blitzer.
Getting back to how many indictments have
there been for voter fraud?
If voter fraud really is the problem you claim
it is, how many indictments have there been?
William Barr tells us several tenure as attorney
general of the United States.
How many indictments have you brought against
people committing voter fraud?
I couldn't tell you off the top of my head,
but several I know, like a handful.
I can't.
I don't know what several.
Doesn't sound like too many.
Well, I don't know.
I don't know how many we have.
I know there are a number of investigations
right now.
So some very big ones in states.
The president also has said, and I'm quoting
him directly.
And Wolf Blitzer is right in a country of
hundred thirty one million with billions of
votes cast over the last however many election
cycles up, several cases of voter fraud really
isn't a lot.
It's not hundreds, if not thousands.
It's not anything that comes even close to
impacting the election results.
And then William Barr insists we simply haven't
tried mail in voting.
So it's a question mark.
It's a black hole.
Anything could happen.
We haven't seen widespread fraud.
But so far, we haven't tried it.
Well, now, the point, though, is that a lot
of us.
There are several states that only have mail
in voting, including a Republican office is
playing with fire.
This is playing with fire.
We're very closely divided country here.
And if people have to have confidence in the
results of the election and the legitimacy
of the government and people trying to change
the rules to this to this methodology, which,
as a matter of logic is very open to fraud
and coercion is reckless and dangerous and
the people are playing with fire.
Well, I will point out there are five states
that only have mail in voting, including Utah,
Colorado, Washington State, Oregon, Hawaii.
And they they've reported over the years they've
had virtually no problems.
But who's trying to change the rules right
now?
I'm tired of people who want to go to mass
mail in ballots.
But you understand why there is a corona virus
pandemic and there are a lot of people potentially,
if they waited long lines when they go to
the polls, they could get they could get sick,
especially older people or people with underlying
conditions as a result.
A lot of people want to change the rules so
they don't have to go wait on halfpence.
Well, you don't have to touch all this at
the appropriate way to deal with that is,
number one, arrangement's at the polls that
protect people, which can be done.
Now, of course, we have tried it.
We have systems in place.
We're just doing more of it this year because
of a pandemic.
It's the same ballots.
It's the same processes.
It's the same postal service.
Unless, of course, Donald Trump manages to
kneecap it, kneecap it.
And William Barr gives a hint about what this
is.
This is really about William Barr says, listen,
this is a closely divided country.
And what that means is if too many people
are able to vote safely.
It could be really bad for Donald Trump.
That's the code that William Barr is using
when he says, listen, we've got to be careful.
This is a closely divided country.
That's right.
That's right.
And that's why the idea from Trump is suppress
the vote that we know will be disproportionately
a vote for Joe Biden.
People taking coronavirus more seriously are
more likely to vote by mail.
If you suppress vote by mail, you're more
likely to suppress more Biden votes than you
are.
Trump votes.
So here is Wolf explaining to William Barr
that you can't vote twice, that it's illegal
to try to do it willfully.
It's illegal.
Despite Donald Trump's encouragement, which
I'll get to momentarily take a look at this
and then let them go vote.
And if the system is as good as they say it
is, then obviously they won't be able to vote.
It sounds like he's Kurdt encouraging people
to break the law and try to vote twice.
Well, I don't know exactly what he was saying,
but it seems to me what he's saying is he's
trying to make the point that the ability
to monitor this system is not good.
And if it was so good, if you tried to vote
a second time, you would be caught if you
voted in person would be illegal.
If they did that, if somebody mailed in a
ballot and then actually showed up to vote
in person.
That would be illegal.
I don't know what the law in that particular
state.
States can't vote twice.
Well, I don't know what the law in that particular
state says.
And when that vote becomes final, any state
that says you can vote twice.
Well, there's some, you know, maybe that you
can change your vote up to a particular term.
I don't know what the law that's I'm not going
to offer.
He was saying tests like this that he doesn't
know what he's saying, why he's asking me
what he's saying.
He doesn't believe in the mail, in voting.
You're the attorney general of the United
Sluttish out here.
Right.
Well, the little experiment that William Barr
is talking about, there would be a crime.
We've never seen anything like this.
The attorney general says he doesn't know
what the law is about voting around the country,
but he's sure based on logic, as he said to
Wolf Blitzer, that foreign countries are going
to try to print and send in millions of ballots.
What's going on is unprecedented.
This is a red alert, not a rehearsal.
And next, I want to get to Donald Trump actually
suggesting suggesting that voters commit what
in North Carolina
is
a felony.
