Maddow Blog site | Is Texas’ Dan Patrick prepared to part with his $1 million reward?
Right after Donald Trump misplaced his re-election bid, Republicans settled on a predictable technique: convey to the general public there was widespread “voter fraud.” All they’d want is some evidence.

And while that may perhaps have seemed like a straightforward endeavor, developing evidence of a systemic dilemma that does not exist is pretty a bit more durable than it appears. To that conclude, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) declared 7 weeks back that he’d be prepared to pay out up to $1 million as a reward to individuals who could create evidence of fraud.
At the outset, this appeared to be unwise. As we talked over previous thirty day period, the Texas Republican was efficiently arguing that he and his get together assumed there was widespread fraud, but they couldn’t verify it, so he hoped economic benefits would create proof Republicans could not find on their personal. Patrick was mainly telling the community, “We are unable to again up our talking factors, so I will pay back you to help.”
But now there is a connected challenge: Patrick’s counterpart in Pennsylvania has uncovered actual-world proof of Trump voters committing fraud, and he desires the Texan to pay out up. The Houston Chronicle described:
All John Fetterman would like for Christmas is the $3 million he states Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick owes him. The Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania has been trolling his Republican counterpart for months to acquire on the $1 million Patrick available in November for proof of fraud in the Nov. 3 election. 3 supporters of President Donald Trump have now been billed in different voter fraud schemes in Pennsylvania. Fetterman suggests they should all depend for bounty purposes.
The landscape has to be discouraging for these inclined to think baseless Republican conspiracy theories about the election. For all the hysterical rhetoric, only a handful of genuine allegations have been elevated, and some entail Republicans casting illegal ballots for Trump on behalf of lifeless kin.
In truth, this is particularly what Fetterman uncovered in Pennsylvania, which is why the Democratic lieutenant governor would like Dan Patrick to pay out the reward. (Fetterman has vowed to donate proceeds to area meals banks.)
Fetterman discussed to the Chronicle that he’s pushing the issue in portion to discredit baseless Republican smears against the elections. “Even though it’s definitely and undeniably hilarious these conditions concerned Trump voters and their dead mothers, it is irrelevant mainly because it files how definitely rare voter fraud is and how not possible it is to certainly pull it off,” the Pennsylvania mentioned.
For his portion, a spokesperson for Patrick replied, “It is not crystal clear why Lt. Gov. Fetterman carries on on this topic considering that Democrats really don’t believe that in voter fraud — until it really is the Russians.”
It is an unlucky reaction. For a person issue, Democrats “really don’t believe that in” systemic voter fraud because systemic voter fraud won’t exist. It can be variety of the full level of this training.
For one more, no one’s accused Russia of partaking in voter fraud — at the very least not in the United States — so significantly as the Kremlin launched a military services intelligence operation in the hopes of placing Donald Trump in electrical power. Which is not just a “perception” between Democrats it is really also been confirmed by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, which documented the simple fact that Trump’s marketing campaign chairman was in direct, regular, and solution communication with a Russian intelligence officer all over his time on the Trump campaign in 2016.
As officers actually ought to know by now, there is a apparent, bipartisan consensus that Vladimir Putin’s authorities specific U.S. elections for the express goal of encouraging elevate Donald Trump to power. The evidence has demonstrated that Trump’s operation sought Russian help, embraced Russian assistance, capitalized on Russian support, lied about Russian guidance, and took techniques to obstruct the investigation into Russian guidance.
As for why Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor “proceeds on this topic,” I imagine it can be because Fetterman wants Dan Patrick to honor his commitments.
