“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd mocked Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and others in his party for requesting an investigation into potential election fraud.
Todd accused Johnson during a Sunday morning interview of carrying the “crazy conspiratorial water” for President Donald Trump in order to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election. (RELATED: Hunter And James Biden Have Refused To Cooperate With Senate Requests)
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Johnson claimed that his intent was not to disregard or overturn the outcome of a free and fair election, but rather to investigate irregularities to ensure that this election and all future elections would, in fact, be free and fair.
“I’m trying to be transparent,” Johnson explained, detailing a few of the specific claims about voter fraud before Todd interrupted.
“Just because you have somebody say it didn’t make it true,” Todd said.
“It’s easy —” Johnson began again, but Todd interrupted once more. (RELATED: Chuck Todd Falsely Claims ‘Nobody Made Those Footnotes’ About Supreme Court Nominations In 2016)
“Senator, none of the allegations. Stop,” Todd insisted. “You don’t get to make allegations that haven’t been proven true. Here is what I don’t understand. You understand how our government was set up. The reason we have a judiciary is because partisans like yourself weren’t going to be trusted by the public to decide who won or lost an election.”
Johnson went on to explain that what he wanted was an investigation that was open and transparent so that the people would trust the outcome, saying, “We have an enormous problem in this country, it’s unsustainable and the only way you solve it is with information and transparency and hearings and investigations.”
“Why didn’t you hold hearings about the 9/11 truthers?” Todd asked, arguing that there were many who had claimed the 9/11 terrorist attacks were “an inside job.”
“How about the moon landing? Are you going to hold hearings on that?” Todd continued as both men talked over each other.
Johnson responded by saying that hearings on everything were not necessary and that he had to “pick and choose” which issues warranted further investigation.
“We have an election and tens of millions of Americans that think this election was stolen. We need to get to the bottom of it,” Johnson added.
Todd then turned the argument on Johnson, saying that people only believed the election had been stolen because Republicans were telling them that it was.
“You got to ask yourself, when you tell people a million times that something was stolen or something was fraud and then they believe it, I think you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself why so many people —” Todd said.
“Chuck, you need to look in your mirror —” Johnson shot back, pointing out the media’s role in perpetuating the Russian collusion narrative. “That is what you did in the media. You carried that water for years. You destroyed the credibility of the press.”