Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is facing questioning on several new controversial voting laws in states following the 2020 presidential election.
Axios reporter Jonathan Swan pressed Cheney during an interview, “You don’t see any linkage between Donald Trump saying the election’s stolen and Republicans in all these state legislatures rushing to put in place these restrictive voter laws?”
“I think you have to look at the specifics of each one of those efforts,” Cheney replied. “If you look at the Georgia laws, for example, there’s been a lot that’s been said nationally about the Georgia voter laws that turned out not to be true.”
Swan continued, “I don’t think anyone doubts that the reason 400-some voting bills have been introduced, 90 percent by Republicans, supported by the Republican National Committee, I don’t think it’s a coincidence after the election that this has happened.”
The Wyoming lawmaker, however, said, “Look, I think everybody should want a situation and a system where people who ought to be able to vote and have the right to vote should vote and people who don’t shouldn’t.”
Swan pressed Cheney what the “big problem” is in states like Georgia, Florida and Texas that need to be “solved” by a new voting law.
“I think you got to look at each individual state law,” Cheney responded, to which Swan added, “You can’t divorce them from the context.”
Watch Cheney’s interview below:
.@jonathanvswan presses @RepLizCheney on her defense of restrictive voting laws.
— Axios (@axios) May 23, 2021
Swan: You don't see any linkage between Trump saying the election's stolen and Republicans rushing to put in place these restrictive voter laws? #AxiosOnHBO pic.twitter.com/gN0pS0baqu
Some of the controversial new measures are in states like Georgia, Florida and Texas.
Legislation in states like Virginia and Kentucky aims to expand access to the polls, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As the Journal reports, citing the National Conference of State Legislatures, “Overall, states introduced roughly 2,950 election-related bills by late April, which was already a few hundred more than recent postelection years … Typically, only about 12% of these bills become law, the NCSL estimates, and many that do focus on small issues that don’t make national headlines.”
