Rand Paul Spars With George Stephanopoulos Over Whether the Presidential Election Was 'Stolen'
While President Joe Biden has been sworn in and former President Donald Trump has left Washington, D.C., some Congressional Republicans are insisting that there should be an investigation into whether there was widespread fraud in the election.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was asked during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” by host George Stephanopoulos whether he accepts that the presidential election was not “stolen.”
“Well, what I would say is that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur,” Paul said as he claimed the debate did not happen because several of the Trump campaign lawsuits were dismissed due to procedural reasons.
He went on to allege that there were “dead people” and “illegal aliens” who voted in the election.
Stephanopoulos interjected as he noted that “no election is perfect,” he added that Trump’s lawsuits were dismissed and the states certified their elections “after investigations, counts, and recounts.” Additionally, he pointed to former Attorney General William Barr’s statement that the Justice Department did not find evidence of widespread fraud.
He asked, “Can’t you just say the words, ‘This election was not stolen’?”
“What I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections, and 75% of Republicans agree with me, is that we do need to look at election integrity,” Paul responded.
Watch the video below:
Pressed repeatedly by @GStephanopoulos, Sen. Rand Paul won’t say the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, calls for investigation of fraud, but doesn’t provide evidence.
GS: “There are not two sides to this story. This has been looked at in every single state.” https://t.co/kEzanF2Ysi pic.twitter.com/DDufLZvwBB
— ABC News (@ABC) January 24, 2021
Stephanopoulos tried again, asking why Paul would not state that Biden won a free and fair election.
The Kentucky lawmaker accused journalists of “immediately” declaring that “everything’s a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything.”
Stephanopoulos again pointed to Barr’s comments that there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
“Even that’s not true,” Paul shot back. “Barr said that… that was a pronouncement. There has been no examination, thorough examination, of all the states to see what problems we had and see if they could fix them.”
He noted that he voted to certify the results of the Electoral College vote because he believed it would be “wrong for Congress to overturn that.”
Still, he said, “I’m not willing just to sit here and say, ‘Oh everybody on the Republican side is a liar’ and ‘there is no fraud.’ No, there were lots of problems, and there were secretaries of state who illegally changed the law, and that needs to be fixed.”
“That’s the problem with the media today is they say, ‘All Republicans are liars’ and everything we say is a lie.’ There are two sides to every story. Interview somebody on the other side. But don’t insert yourself into the story to say we’re all liars.”
Stephanopoulos retorted, “There are not two sides to this story. This has been looked at in every single state.”
Finally, he asked Paul one more time if the election was stolen. The senator responded by saying there is a “great deal of evidence of fraud and changing of the election laws illegally” and, “I think a thorough investigation is warranted.”
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