'I will just not accept that': CNN host rips GOP senator over 'absolute false equivalence'
An Oklahoma Republican senator clashed with a CNN anchor on Thursday as he refused to definitively answer whether he would vote to certify election results that go against former President Donald Trump — and repeatedly tried to downplay and deflect from Trump's 2020 plot to block certification of the election.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin insisted to anchor Pamela Brown he would certify the results, but only "if the elections are certified underneath the standards that they put forth." He was referencing repeated false claims made by Republicans that several battleground states refused to follow their state laws in 2020.
"I will say this, Pam, at this point, it doesn't matter if Republicans win or the Democrats win. Both parties are probably going to cry, cry foul," said Mullin. "You got to remember in 2016, when President Trump won that Democrats were saying that election was stolen."
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"That's a false equivalence," said Brown.
"No, it's not," said Mullin. "You're telling me in 2015, Pam, that Democrats didn't say that the election was rigged? They did. They absolutely did."
"That is an absolute false equivalence and I will just not accept that on this show," said Brown. "What happened in 2020 was you had a sitting president in office who lost the election, who said it was rigged, it was stolen. And members of Congress voting against certification that the states had already certified and taking it to the Supreme Court, trying to overturn the will of millions of voters. That is very different than what is—"
"Well, if you want to talk about how many people did not vote to certify, let's talk about the Democrats that didn't vote to certify the election when Bush won!" said Mullin.
"It's one thing for people to complain, it's another for people to organize, and then you had January 6," said Brown. "The question I asked you, are you not willing to accept the results of this next election, even if every state certifies, unless you—"
"I said I'm gonna look at it," said Mullin. "I'll take it by case, absolutely I'll look at it."
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