See below for video from yesterday’s Virginia House of Delegates meeting, as Democrats – Del. Marcus Simon, Del. Wendy Gooditis, Del. Cia Price, Del. Hala Ayala, Del. Mike Mullin – talked a new report from the Virginia Dept. of Elections which found that the 2020 election in Virginia was extraordinarily safe, secure and successful, and pushed back on Republican falsehoods about voting and elections. In stark contrast, Virginia House Republicans – Del. Dave LaRock, Del. Todd Gilbert, Del. Glenn Davis – spewed out their usual lies about mythical “voter fraud” and other idiocy, pushing their (in Del. Simon’s words) “unfounded” “without merit” “dangerous” “narrative that casts doubt on the integrity of our election process…in spite of all the evidence” to the contrary.
- As Del. Cia Price explained, Democrats “will go to great lengths to protect our democracy and make sure it’s fair and accessible” and to fight back against “targeted efforts of voter suppression.”
- Del. Wendy Gooditis noted that Del. LaRock “not only attended the day of the riot on January 6th but encouraged people to be there and actually described the day as ‘outstanding’,” and even “asked [in his letter to VP Pence] to nullify our Virginia election against all evidence.” Del. Gooditis added that it’s “sad that we have to listen to this in this House and my fellow members have my sympathy.”
- Del. Hala Ayala said that Republicans’ disinformation about the elections “causes chaos in our democracy and “peels away at the very fabric in which this country and this Commonwealth has been founded on.” As Del. Ayala correctly notes, there has been NO evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 elections.
- Del. Mike Mullin argued that “this is an absolutely ridiculous conversation” and “such a bizarre argument,” that “if everyone who died voted, it wouldn’t have changed the election.” Del. Mullin pointed out, correctly, that “the reason that people start to have questions about this election is when elected officials raise it as a question over and over again in the public – on Fox News and all the other Republican talking places.” Bottom line: “our elections are free, fair and VERY secure; there is absolutely no reason that we need to be having this argument, other than a deep and well-reasoned fear of zombies.”
P.S. By the way, to highlight how NOT to report on this “debate,” the pathetic Washington Post headline on this was – I kid you not! – “Tension over election integrity erupts in Virginia House of Delegates.” Can we get any more vague, cowardly and “both sides” than that? It’s crap like this why people like (conservative) Jennifer Rubin just wrote in that same newspaper about how “The media fails to meet the moment.” Sadly, the political press in this country has largely failed to “meet the moment” for many years now, certainly going back to 2016 and their obsessive coverage of Trump, as well as their obsessive false equivalency/both-sidesism about “her emails” and “the Clinton Foundation.” In sum, the media is largely responsible for helping to give us Trump and almost destroying our democracy.
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