NBC host Chuck Todd took on Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s claim that the November presidential election was tainted and the subsequent reaction from the public calling Republican Senators treasonous, Politico reports.
“You’re the arsonist here!” Todd told Johnson. “President Trump is the arsonist here. You started this fire and now you’re saying whoa, look at this, oh my god, all these people believe what we told them because you didn’t have the guts to tell the truth that this election was fair.”
Johnson and 11 other Republican Senators as well as more than 100 Republican members of the House plan to challenge the Electoral College certification, claiming that the vote tallies from various swings states are fraudulent for various, unproven reasons.
Both Johnson and Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has balked at people calling their claims treasonous and un-American.
“This fire was started back in, you know, January of 2017,” Johnson said, apparently referring to various conduct into Trump’s behavior during the 2016 campaign, the impeachment into his apparent attempted blackmail of the Ukrainian government, and various other ongoing investigations into Trump’s business dealings and professional actions.
Johnson complained about debunked claims of election irregularities in Nevada and Pennsylvania. “I’m trying to be transparent,” Johnson claimed after again citing evidence-free conspiracies.
“Just because you have somebody say it didn’t make it true,” Todd told him, adding later: “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.”