Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Sunday spared with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos over the results of the 2020 presidential election. According to Paul, so-called "journalists" like Stephanopoulos repeatedly interject themselves into the voter fraud narrative, saying there is no evidence fraud existed.
“A threshold question for you, this election was not stolen, do you accept that fact?” the host asked.
“Well, what I would say that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur. We never had any presentation in court. Most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, a procedural way of not hearing it. A law was changed in secretary of state, not the state legislatures," the senator explained. "There’s still a chance that those actually work their way up to the Supreme Court.”
Stephanopoulos interjected.
“I have to stop you there. No election is perfect, but there were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court, all were dismissed. Every state certified the results after counts and recounts. The Department of Justice, led by William Barr, said there’s no widespread fraud. Can’t you just say the words this election was not stolen?” he asked.
Paul reminded the host of one important fact: a large portion of America feels like something nefarious took place during the election.
"What I would suggest is, is that if we want greater confidence in our elections and 75 percent of Republicans agree with me is that we do need to look at election integrity and we need to see if we can restore confidence in the election," the senator said.
According to Stephanopoulos, the only reason Republicans are concerned about election integrity is because President Trump "fed them a big lie."
Paul disagreed with the assessment. Instead, he slammed the host for inserting himself into the equation.
“George, where you make a mistake is people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything’s a lie instead of saying there’s two sides to everything," Paul said. "Historically what would happen if I said I thought there were fraud, you would interview someone who said there wasn’t. Now you insert yourself in the middle and say the absolute fact is everything I’m saying is a lie.”
The senator said reporters like Stephanopoulos have automatically called Republicans with concerns "liars" instead of presenting both sides of the equation.
There were lots of problems, and there were secretaries of state who illegally changed the law, and that needs to be fixed, and I’m going to work hard to fix it. I won’t be cowed by people saying, ‘oh, you are a liar.’ That is the problem with the media today," Paul said. "They say all Republicans are liars and everything we say is lies. There are two sides to every story. Interview somebody on the other side.”
The host was taken back by the claim.
“Sir, there are not two sides to this story. This has been looked in every single state," he replied.
Paul disagreed.
"Sure there are. There are two sides to every story. George, you’re forgetting who you are as a journalist if you think there’s only one side," the senator said. "You’re inserting yourself into the story to say I’m a liar because I want to look at secretaries of state who changed the laws. It happened. You can’t just sweep it under the rug—nothing to see here. You’re a fool to bring this up. A journalist would hear both sides. Not insert themselves in the story.”
Pressed repeatedly by @GStephanopoulos, Sen. Rand Paul won’t say the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, calls for investigation of fraud, but doesn’t provide evidence.
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 24, 2021
GS: “There are not two sides to this story. This has been looked at in every single state.” https://t.co/P6iz1jjwYE pic.twitter.com/GeWSYe0Bs0