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Senator Ron Johnson and NBC News host Chuck Todd had a heated exchange on Sunday about Republicans’ efforts to challenge the certification of the electoral college tally at a joint session of Congress this week.
Johnson, one of at least 12 GOP senators who will oppose certification on Wednesday, took issue with claims they were trying to overturn the vote that gave President-elect Joe Biden 306 electoral votes for President Trump 232.
“We are not acting to thwart the democratic process – we are acting to protect it,” Johnson said.
“The point is, we have an untenable situation in this country where we have tens of millions of people who do not see this election result as legitimate,” the Wisconsin Republican said on “Meet the Press”.
In a statement on Saturday, Johnson and his fellow Republican, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and four new senators, said the election “included unprecedented allegations of voter fraud” and called on Congress to appoint a commission responsible for a 10-day audit.
“As long as someone is against this and we’re going to vote, come up with a solution in terms of transparency, investigation, with a commission,” Johnson said.
But Todd noted that the controversy was the result of the president and his Republican allies repeatedly alleging electoral fraud even as courts dismissed numerous lawsuits brought by Trump’s legal team and GOP lawmakers.
“You have alleged that there was widespread fraud, you have not provided specific evidence of this widespread fraud, but you are demanding an investigation on the grounds that there are allegations of widespread fraud. So basically you’re the arsonist here. President Trump is the arsonist here, ”Todd told Johnson.
“Because you didn’t have the courage to tell the truth that this election was fair!” He continued.
But Johnson hit back to say that Todd was the ‘arsonist’ because the mainstream media in January 2017 ‘gave up any pretense of being impartial and effectively took sides during the election’.
Johnson said the media poured oil on the fire when they ignored the investigation into Hunter Biden’s trade relations in China and Ukraine.
“Senator, okay, I’ve had enough,” Todd said.
“I’ve had enough of this too,” Johnson said, adding that the media was biased against Trump.
Todd told Johnson that he and his colleagues “fail to make these claims that haven’t been proven true” and asked who won Wisconsin.
“Vice President Biden won by 20,000 votes. But there are also problems in Wisconsin, ”Johnson said, continuing to question the voting systems used to count votes in the state.
During a back-and-forth in which the two left off, Todd asked why he hadn’t held hearings on the “truths of 9/11.” There are a lot of people who thought 9/11 was internal work.
“What you’re basically saying is if there are enough people who believe in a conspiracy theory … what about the moon landing?” Are you going to hold hearings on this?
“There are certain issues that need to be explored and investigated,” Johnson said of the 2020 election.
Todd, at the end of the interview, thanked Johnson for appearing because “only two of your colleagues had the courage to say yes this weekend about this conspiracy theory you’re working on.”
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