'I don't have an answer': Conservative wilts on CNN while attempting to defend Trump moves

Panelists on "CNN This Morning" ganged up on a conservative commentator for defending the Trump administration's all-hands-on-deck investigation into debunked 2020 election fraud claims.

The FBI raided an election hub last week in Fulton County, Georgia, where President Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators were indicted for attempting to overturn his loss, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present during the search.

"First of all,we want to remind people thatthe number of recounts in Georgia topped out at five, Ithink, here, which did include astatewide hand audit, a votingmachine review," host Audie Cornish said. "Trump got hismachine recount, and never mindthe fact that it's six yearslater. There have been many,many elections since. So this isthis about then, or is this about2026 and 2028?"

Journalist Jerusalem Demsas argued that Trump can't move on from his loss to Joe Biden for psychological reasons, so she argued that he was less focused on upcoming elections than he was in attempting to assuage his bruised ego, but conservative Rob Bluey insisted the president was justified in pursuing fraud claims that have been rejected by multiple courts.

"In 2020, Georgia wasdecided by less than 12,000votes," Bluey said. "In just December, welearned from Georgia stateelection commission that Fulton County officials admitted that315,000 ballots did not gothrough the proper certificationprocess, where electionofficials failed to sign at thebeginning or the end of thetape. So we don't know how manyof those might be in question.So I think that the president isright to raise concerns aboutthis when Fulton County isacknowledging that thingsdidn't go exactly according to plan."

Cornish wasn't persuaded and asked whether Republicans wanted to make 2020 the centerpiece of their 2026 campaign message.

"What they did notacknowledge, though, iswidespread problems that wouldchange the fundamental count," Cornish interjected. "Doyou want to spend time talkingabout this for the next sixmonths?"

Bluey laughed but insisted that election integrity was a crucial issue, but Cornish pressed on.

"I'm being serious – likeeconomy, Venezuela, Iran, like, do Republicans want to spend theirtime on this as they'reliterally getting booed atevents over ICE?" she said.

"Yes, they should spend theirtime on this," Bluey continued. "The president cameout yesterday, emphaticallyendorsed the SAVE America Act,which is sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee and [Rep.] Chip Roy. That is akey priority for them right now,and I think that they will spendtime on it, Audie, because weknow we have a situation in thiscountry where electionintegrity, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican,depending on who wins or losesan election, you have doubtsabout the outcome."

Legal analyst Elliot Williams took another crack at the issue.

"Okay, but then answer thequestion," said Williams, a former federal prosecutor and ICE official. "Why is the director ofnational intelligence the oneoverseeing the search warrant?"

"I don't have an answer foryou," Bluey admitted.

"That's the sortof the issue here," Williams added. "No onedisputes that election integrityis important and that we shouldwe should get fraud out of ourelections. That still doesn'tanswer the question of why thehead of the DNI is literallysniffing over the shoulders ofFBI agents when they're tryingto carry out a criminal searchwarrant, and it's just not goodfor anybody."

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