1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Speaking of politics. It's always a pleasure to welcome Sarah Westwood, 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:06,640 Speaker 1: investigative reporter for The Washington Examiner, to the show. Sarah, 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: how are you. I'm great, Thanks for having me. It's 4 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: it's our pleasure. Thanks. I've read a couple of pieces 5 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 1: that you've written, uh lately. In one in particular, really, 6 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,640 Speaker 1: we around here think it's one of the great under 7 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: discussed stories in America, and that is, uh, people's trust 8 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: in the voting system, people's belief in the fidelity of 9 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 1: the ballot. And you've written a piece recently about various 10 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,479 Speaker 1: states moving in different directions in terms of who votes. 11 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: How can you give us kind of an overview of 12 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,599 Speaker 1: what's happening? Sure, you know, I think that this was 13 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:47,240 Speaker 1: a much bigger deal at the federal level last year 14 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,520 Speaker 1: and early this year in January, you know, President Biden 15 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 1: gave a big speech about voting rights. Kamala Harris was 16 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: focusing intently on this, and it's lost a lot of theme. 17 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,080 Speaker 1: At the national level, there was not enough traction to 18 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: get any sort of meaningful voting reforms through Congress. So 19 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 1: now you're seeing these fights play out state by states, 20 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:09,119 Speaker 1: and New York and California in particular, have taken elements 21 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:13,559 Speaker 1: of what was then the HR one for the People 22 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: Acts with John Lewis Voting Rights Access of legislation that 23 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: had a lot of very um significant structural changes to 24 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: voting laws and tried to implement them on the state level. 25 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: And so you could see a lot of changes in 26 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: this midterm election come November. A lot of states have 27 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:34,200 Speaker 1: tried and some have even succeeded, in making permanent the 28 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: type of temporary solutions that were put in place to 29 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:41,560 Speaker 1: accommodate public health concerns during the pandemic, like sending absolutee 30 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: ballots to every voter, which is something that is going 31 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: to be now a permanent feature of California voting right. 32 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: I saw in your article that the Wisconsin Supreme Court 33 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: went in the other direction. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, 34 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: this was a significant blow to the left wing agenda 35 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: when it comes to voting. But the wiscon In Supreme 36 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: Court looked out the way the state's law is currently 37 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: written and said that the law as as it send 38 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: does not allow for unattended ballot boxes, which means that 39 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: if precincts want to have ballot drop boxes where someone 40 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: can fill out their absentee ballot at home. Maybe they 41 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 1: don't want to drop it in the mail for whatever reason, 42 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,359 Speaker 1: they feel more comfortable leaving it at the box. They 43 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:25,640 Speaker 1: have to have a physical person they're monitoring the drop 44 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: box if they want to have this option for voters. 45 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: And that's a really expensive, logistically challenging way to to 46 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,359 Speaker 1: do drop boxes, while you typically see them being unmanned, 47 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:39,760 Speaker 1: because that that sort of manpower, full time manpower, Uh, 48 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:43,360 Speaker 1: it's hard to come by in elections. You also have 49 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:46,679 Speaker 1: in with constant um a band now from the State 50 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: Supreme Court on what critics call ballot harvesting, which is 51 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 1: basically where any third party sometimes political operatives can collect 52 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,959 Speaker 1: absentee ballots ostensibly to help people who can't necessarily get 53 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:02,680 Speaker 1: to the polls. I dropped them off in bulk, you know, 54 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:06,040 Speaker 1: county clerk's offices or at these drop boxes. That also 55 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 1: is not compatible with Wisconsin law as it stands. Now. 56 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: Voting rights advocates will say, you know this, this hurts 57 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: elderly people, are disabled people who might not be able 58 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: to get out of the house to submit their absentee ballot. 59 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 1: But that's why the vote by mail system exists in 60 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: the first place. It existed for people like you know, 61 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: the disabled and the elderly who can't necessarily get to 62 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: the polls, and so that option voting by mail is 63 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: still available to people now that ballot harvesting is banned 64 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: in with consin right. I remember it was a couple 65 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: of election cycles ago that a Republican was booted out 66 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 1: of Congress and the election had to be reheld in 67 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: North Carolina because the various operatives engaged in ballot harvesting, 68 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: which is illegal. And roughly half the states I think, 69 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: or it's like twenty two to twenty three or something 70 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: like that. Do you happen to know that number, off fan, 71 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: I don't, but that sounds about or or you know, 72 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: give or take a couple of states, right, right, And 73 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: this is clearly editorializing, and you can join in or 74 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,720 Speaker 1: not depending on your your wishes. But um, what we've 75 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: been saying around here is that people ought to be 76 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: able to vote, certainly and mail and voting for old 77 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,200 Speaker 1: folks are disabled or whatever. That's nobody is against that, 78 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: but the idea of one guy showing up with fifteen 79 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 1: ballots is it's damaging to the credibility of the electoral process, 80 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: even if there are reasonable safeguards in place to make 81 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:32,359 Speaker 1: sure every one of those votes is legit and and honestly, 82 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,840 Speaker 1: I don't find the safeguards uh strong enough, but just 83 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: that very idea of a guy with a stack of ballots, 84 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,160 Speaker 1: it bothers people, it does. And I think you know 85 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,800 Speaker 1: a lot of these the liberalization of the vote by 86 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:50,160 Speaker 1: mail ruled in states like Pennsylvania, New York, and California. 87 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: Those were done under the pretext of the pandemic, and 88 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,799 Speaker 1: they were all builled as temporary measures. And now any 89 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: effort to go back to what the pre pandemic stand 90 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:04,680 Speaker 1: neard was is being decried as voter suppression. And so 91 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:06,479 Speaker 1: you know, this is sort of a bait and switch 92 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: that a lot of these Democrats did. When it comes 93 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:11,560 Speaker 1: to the voting law in Texas, for example, a lot 94 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: of the changes that Texas made in their voting reforms 95 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,279 Speaker 1: that they passed last year was just stripping away some 96 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 1: of those pandemic policies like twenty four hour voting or 97 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: like drive through voting which occurred in sub prefings in 98 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: urban areas. That was attacked by Democrats, as you know, 99 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:31,599 Speaker 1: taking away people's right to vote, even though at the 100 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: time Democrats insisted that those measures were never meant to 101 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: be temporary. So there is a lot of sort of 102 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 1: rhetorical deception around this voting issue that's no longer you know, 103 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: in the national spotlight, because again, this is playing out 104 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: in the States, but you know, those fights are still happening. 105 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: Sarah Westwood, investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner, on the 106 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: line in the a couple of minutes we have left, 107 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: you did another piece on the House Republicans indeed take 108 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: the I'm sorry. If Puplicans take the House, which is expected, 109 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: that they are going to launch their own bunch of 110 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: investigations into the Biden administration. I'm not sure how much 111 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: I love this government by investigation that seems to be 112 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: popular these days. But what will they be investigating and 113 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: who's going to do it? Yeah, so we are seeing 114 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,800 Speaker 1: outs Republicans start to lay the groundwork for what those 115 00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: investigations are going to look like and what committees are 116 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: going to be the venue for those probes. Even though 117 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 1: they're not in the majority, they don't have subpoena power 118 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 1: necessarily the power to set the agenda and call witnesses 119 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: they can't send letters and requests and inquiries, and so 120 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: we're starting to see that. For example, the House Oversight 121 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: Committee uh Congress, and James Cohmer is the ranking member, 122 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 1: largely expected to be the chairman if Republicans take the 123 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:50,120 Speaker 1: House in November. He's already started sending request to the 124 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 1: Treasury Department for what's known as suspicious activity reports, or 125 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:59,960 Speaker 1: reports that are automatically generated when business transaction internationally. The 126 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 1: potentially raise red flags all the suspicious activity reports related 127 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 1: to Hunter Biden. So he's sort of starting to lay 128 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 1: the groundwork there for what will probably be a pretty 129 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:13,960 Speaker 1: robust investigation of Hunter Biden's business dealings. The House Administration Committee, 130 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:17,520 Speaker 1: which you know resees the sort of administrative staff associated 131 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:21,480 Speaker 1: with Congress, is already sort of gearing up to investigate 132 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: why Capital police didn't have more security on January six, 133 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: why were they caught so flat footed? And you have 134 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: Republicans sending request to the January six Committee asking them 135 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: to preserve all their emails and documents because Republicans are 136 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:38,320 Speaker 1: gearing up to do a pretty aggressive investigation of the 137 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 1: investigators of January six to see, you know, was any 138 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: witness coerced or threatened with financial ruin, you know, if 139 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 1: they didn't testify where people's rights trampled on by this aggressive, 140 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:52,880 Speaker 1: you know, made for TV investigations. The Republicans really positioning 141 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: themselves to do some some aggressive investigating if they do 142 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: win in November. Well, and I understand the House Judicial 143 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: Theory Committee might be looking at Anthony Fauci. That's right, 144 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: as Congressman Jim Jordan's really interested in the Anthony Fauci 145 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: sort of the space of this unpopular COVID response, the 146 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: Republicans are interested in how and why he shifted so 147 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: dramatically his position on the lab leak theory. This theory 148 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:24,560 Speaker 1: that COVID nineteen escaped from a virology lab at Wuhan 149 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: and that's how it starts spreading in China, which is 150 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: a pretty now publicly accepted likely possibility for how the 151 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: pandemic began. But Sauci hasn't not really explained why he 152 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:41,040 Speaker 1: went from totally dismissing this theory too reluctantly embracing it. 153 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: And there are a lot of questions about, you know, 154 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,959 Speaker 1: in i h's funding of grants that contributed to research 155 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: at that virology lab in Wuhan, and so those are 156 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: the sorts of things that Republicans are going to be 157 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:56,319 Speaker 1: looking into, and you know, that could be pretty uncomfortable 158 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: for for Dr Fauci. Sarah Westwood of the Washington and 159 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:02,480 Speaker 1: Exam her follow her on Twitter, read her at the 160 00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:05,160 Speaker 1: Washington Examiner dot com. Sarah, Hey, thanks very much for 161 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: the time. Thanks for having me. Armstrong and Jetty