White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and CNN’s Jake Tapper went head to head on Sunday over whether there is evidence of widespread voter fraud.
During Tapper’s program “State of the Union” he mentioned President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, and other White House officials all vote by mail.
He asked Meadows what the difference is between voting by mail in Florida and voting by mail in Pennsylvania.
Meadows did not focus on the difference between voting by mail in the two states. Instead, he expressed his concern over voters being “disenfranchised.”
He claimed he takes issue with sending “millions of ballots” across the nation to “empty mailboxes.”
Watch their comments below:
CNN’s @jaketapper: “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.”
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 16, 2020
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows: “There’s no evidence that there’s not, either. That’s the definition of fraud, Jake.” https://t.co/M79UyNK2rI #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/w3MiKXtNAl
Tapper fired back arguing it is not across the country, it is only nine states.
He noted California, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and other states have been using mail-in voting systems for years.
According to Tapper, four states are now sending ballots out to every registered voter and acknowledged it is a concern for Meadows.
Meadows became adamant voter rolls are “inaccurate” and pressed Tapper on whether it would be a concern to him.
Tapper responded, “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud though.”
Meadows retorted, “There’s no evidence that there’s not, either. That’s the definition of fraud, Jake.”
The heated exchange comes just days after Trump and the first lady requested mail-in ballots for Florida’s upcoming primary election, as IJR previously reported.
Trump has made known his apparent disapproval of universal mail-in voting.
During his press briefing on Wednesday, Trump doubled down on his remarks reiterating the biggest threat Americans are facing are Democrats and nationwide mail-in voting because it is going to be the “greatest fraud in the history of elections,” as IJR previously reported.