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 that the number of recounts in Georgia topped out at five, I think, here, which did include a statewide hand audit, a voting machine review," host Audie Cornish said. "Trump got his machine recount, and never mind the fact that it's six years later. There have been many, many elections since. So this is this about then, or is this about 2026 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 was decided by less than 12,000 votes," Bluey said. "In just December, we learned from Georgia state election commission that Fulton County officials admitted that 315,000 ballots did not go through the proper certification process, where election officials failed to sign at the beginning or the end of the tape. So we don't know how many of those might be in question. So I think that the president is right to raise concerns about this when Fulton County is acknowledging that things didn'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 not acknowledge, though, is widespread problems that would change the fundamental count," Cornish interjected. "Do you want to spend time talking about this for the next six months?"
Bluey laughed but insisted that election integrity was a crucial issue, but Cornish pressed on.
"I'm being serious – like economy, Venezuela, Iran, like, do Republicans want to spend their time on this as they're literally getting booed at events over ICE?" she said.
"Yes, they should spend their time on this," Bluey continued. "The president came out yesterday, emphatically endorsed the SAVE America Act, which is sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee and [Rep.] Chip Roy. That is a key priority for them right now, and I think that they will spend time on it, Audie, because we know we have a situation in this country where election integrity, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, depending on who wins or loses an election, you have doubts about the outcome."
Legal analyst Elliot Williams took another crack at the issue.
"Okay, but then answer the question," said Williams, a former federal prosecutor and ICE official. "Why is the director of national intelligence the one overseeing the search warrant?"
"I don't have an answer for you," Bluey admitted.
"That's the sort of the issue here," Williams added. "No one disputes that election integrity is important and that we should we should get fraud out of our elections. That still doesn't answer the question of why the head of the DNI is literally sniffing over the shoulders of FBI agents when they're trying to carry out a criminal search warrant, and it's just not good for anybody."
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