3/29/21
A joke? Now she says it was just a joke. Well then, who is going to tell Republicans? Last week, lawyers for Sidney Powell, a leading voice claiming November’s election was stolen from former President Trump, said “reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact.” But polls show most Republicans didn’t get the memo — they still think the election was stolen. In an ‘Alice In Wonderland’ moment of truth falling through a rabbit hole into a twisted fantasy, Republican politicians now claim that because so many Republicans did take Powell’s joke seriously, they need to act to restore confidence in elections. To get back to reality, there is no evidence of any election fraud. But nonsense about restoring trust among people who fell for a joke is being cited in eight states where Republicans hold the majority in legislatures and are pushing new laws to give them control of vote counting. In the real world, that is called a brazen, partisan power grab to give the GOP the edge in every future election. The same inane claim to be fixing elections to reassure Republican voters is also being used in 43 states where Republican politicians are acting to cut down on absentee and early voting, and to limit hours for voting on Election Day itself, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Those efforts are based on what Powell’s lawyers now dismiss as a joke.
And her joke is based on Trump continuing to spout the “Big Lie” that he didn’t lose the presidential election — it was stolen as a result of “large scale election fraud,” after he won by “historic numbers.” The voter suppression efforts in these state legislatures is “fueled by the Big Lie of widespread voter fraud and often discriminatory in design,” according to the Brennan Center. The attempts “have the potential to dramatically reduce voting access, especially for Black and brown voters.” “This is not a usual political argument. This goes to the core of our democracy,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in dramatic testimony at a Senate hearing last week. Again, Republicans argue they are taking these steps to protect the integrity of elections without mentioning that those Republicans believe a twisted, baseless message from Trump and his allies, including Powell. Now Powell is saying in court that “reasonable people” knew it was not true. That’s the real election fraud.
thehill.com
