CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday repeatedly confronted Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Republicans’ efforts to undermine confidence in this past year’s election results, pushing back when the governor disagreed that President Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud were the main reason many GOP voters believe the election was stolen.
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, DeWine reiterated his previous acknowledgment that we “have not seen anything that rises to the level that would have changed the outcome of the election” when asked about House and Senate Republicans’ latest ploy to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory.
While not endorsing the futile plan to block the Electoral College votes, DeWine insisted there are “some problems in the systems as far as potential fraud” and that the proposal by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) to create an election commission to study election security is a good idea. He went on to say “a lot of people” are concerned about election integrity, prompting Tapper to jump in.
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“Because they have been lied to, governor,” the CNN anchor declared. “Governor, because they have been lied to by President Trump for weeks.”
The tenor of the interview quickly grew more heated and contentious at that point. As DeWine argued for a bipartisan election commission and claimed the real issue is “changes in technology, potential hacking, and all these things,” the CNN moderator brought up other Republicans who believe “people in your party are doing real, lasting damage to American democracy by fully embracing these dangerous conspiracy theories.”
“This isn’t about actual allegations of legitimate fraud,” Tapper added. “This is about fomenting lies in order to undermine democracy! It is very different.”
DeWine continued to disagree with Tapper’s assessment that Team Trump’s baseless conspiracies about widespread voter fraud are what’s driving Republicans’ refusal to accept the election results, leading to a tense back-and-forth.
“President Trump and his minions have been lying for weeks about this election and because of that, the people have been lied to and they have concerns,” Tapper stated. “The solution is they should stop lying.”
“Not that simple,” the governor fired back.
“It is that simple,” Taper retorted.
