Trump lackey Mercedes Schlapp was in cleanup mode after Donald Trump reversed his current vote-by-mail vendetta to encourage Floridians to...vote by mail.
They start out the day with a set of talking points, and even after Donald blows them up, they keep on with them, because they know if they repeat the lie often enough unchallenged, it'll magically turn into fact. This was why Schlapp found herself facing down CNN's Brianna Keilar over the issue of mail-in voting.
As usual, Schlapp filibustered and interrupted with nonsensical rhetorical questions intended to distract everyone from the fact that Trump is fine with mail-in voting in Florida but not Nevada, whose state legislature just approved mail-in voting for the General Election. Since Nevada is a blue state, it's unacceptable. But for Florida, it's just fine. This is the hypocrisy that Republicans are trying to use to cheat their way into a second term for Trump.
Despite Schlapp's nonsense, Keilar remained measured for the most part, reminding Schlapp that we are in the midst of a pandemic, and so perhaps another approach is called for.
Schlapp kept trying to make a distinction between mail-in voting and absentee voting. Keilar finally asked, "Explain to our viewers what the difference is between absentee voting and mail-in voting."
Schlapp's answer was nonsense: "There are some that are interchangeable and then absentee voting is you're absent from your home state and you request a ballot and you send it back and it is verified and in mail-in voting you're mailing in these across the board unverified and that is where it produces a problem."
"They're not unverified," Keilar shot back. "You know there are safety precautions in place such as bar codes. there are some people who even worry about they don't necessarily want to use snail mail. There are places that they could drop off ballots."
Ever quick on her feet, Schlapp countered, "If you're over 65 and you hand over a ballot to a person with ballot harvesting, don't you think that could be prone to taking advantage of our elderly? Those are concerns we need to be aware of whether Republican or Democrat."
The only one who has "taken advantage of our elderly" was a Republican candidate for Congress who tossed Democratic votes and kept the Republican ones, of course.
It was at this point that Keilar just called bullshit on the whole set of excuses. She pointed out that there is no fraud with mail-in voting, and tried to ask another question over Schlapp's frantic attempts to interrupt and distract. This back and forth went on for awhile. Keilar would ask why she wants to disenfranchise or suppress voters and Schlapp would counter with a meaningless distraction, asking stupid questions, like this: "Do you think it is okay after November 3rd to be able to cast a ballot three days after or seven days after the election?"
Keilar, speaking as though she was speaking to a small child, replied, "Mercedes, you're saying that voter fraud is a thing and I'm telling you that it is not, and you're muddying the waters."
More back and forth nonsense until Keilar once again took control.
Mercedes. Mercedes. Mercedes. This is just pointless, okay," she admonished her. This is pointless. I get it, you're just saying a bunch of crap. Okay. You're saying a bunch of crap."
There were two ways this conversation could go. This way, where the host kept putting the facts on the table while refusing to let the garbage talking points stand, or they could have opted not to put Schlapp on the air at all. I would prefer that she didn't get the air, but if they're going to put her on, at least have someone like Keilar who won't allow herself to be steamrolled.
