Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos sparred over the topic of potential fraud in the 2020 election during a Sunday morning segment of “This Week.”
The fireworks began when Stephanopoulos asked Paul to “accept” that the “election was not stolen,” an argument long disputed by former President Donald Trump.
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Arguing that most cases that have been tossed out of courts were done because of “lack of standing” and not the merits of the argument, Paul said the “debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur.”
“Were there people who voted twice? Were there dead people who voted? Were there illegal aliens who voted? Yes, we should get to the bottom of it,” Paul said.
After acknowledging that “no election is perfect,” Stephanopoulos pushed back by citing the dismissed cases and the fact that every state certified their results. He then added that former Attorney General Bill Barr himself claimed there was no widespread fraud.
The two then sparred over the fact that three-quarters of Republicans want to look into the issue of election integrity.
“75% of Republicans agree with you because they were fed a big lie by President Trump and his supporters who say the election was stolen,” the ABC anchor argued.
Paul and Stephanopoulos continued to debate, with the Kentucky senator at several points challenging the ABC anchor for “inserting” himself “in the middle” instead of bringing on somebody else and playing the role of an unbiased media.
“I won’t be cowed by liberals in the media who say, ‘there’s no evidence here and you’re a liar if you talk about election fraud,'” Paul declared. “No, let’s have an open debate. It’s a free country!” (RELATED: REPORT: Trump Floating The Idea Of Creating A New Political Party)
Paul finished by acknowledging that he “accepted the states’ certifications,” but argued that acceptance “doesn’t mean that there weren’t problems that have to be investigated.”