CNN's Brianna Keilar levels Republican's defense of Trump election scheme with fact-check
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Wednesday delivered a blunt fact check for a Republican defending President Donald Trump's plot to interfere with elections.
Keilar was talking to Rep. John Rose (R-TN), one of the co-sponsors of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, when the conversation got fiery over tensions within the GOP and Trump's refusal to sign the bill into law.
"He scrapped the signing of the bill as it was almost underway, because he wants this elections bill passed," Keilar said. "Why should this be held hostage to that?"
Rose said he agreed with Trump that the Save America Act needs to be passed, despite its inability to get enough votes in the Senate.
"I don't know that I would say it's being held hostage, but I think the president is making that the Save America Act, which I very much support and you know the House has passed it now three times," Rose said. "I suspect we'll pass it again here. It needs to move on the Senate side."
He tried to argue that Americans of both parties "overwhelmingly agree" that "we should safeguard our elections."
But Keilar paused the Republican — and pushed back on his comments.
"Let me stop you there," Keilar said. "Republicans are not on board in the Senate on this. There's a division even in your party, on the Senate side of this."
The anchor was born in Australia and described why the Save Act could be complicated for other Americans with a similar background.
"Americans agree with voter ID. This is significantly more than a voter ID bill," Keilar added. "This is a bill that, when you register to vote, complicates mail registration, complicates online registration because it requires a birth certificate or a U.S. passport or a naturalization certificate, which is really difficult, I will tell you, as an American not born in America. That's something that would complicate things for people like me. This also relies on that voter roll database that has had these false negatives when it comes to finding people, as it urges states to verify voter eligibility using the federal verification."