After Iowa Democrats suffered embarrassment in front of the whole country, MSNBC Live's Stephanie Ruhle took to the air on Tuesday to express to Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen her concern that the debacle will hurt Democrats' ability to portray Republicans as being indifferent to concerns about election security.
Ruhle began her condemnation of Republicans by asserting, "The House has tried to do a lot as far as election security and it has gotten roadblocked in the Senate." She didn't explain why Republicans opposed Democratic bills leaving the viewer to imply it must be because Republicans favor insecure elections.
Still, she worried that the disaster in Iowa would hurt Democrats in their election security proposals, "As long as we're talking 2020, is it going to become more challenging for Democrats to talk about the importance of election security when look what just happened in Iowa in the last 24 hours?"
In Ruhle's mind, only Democrats care about election security. She didn't mention Republican concerns that Democratic proposals are needlessly complicated, which, speaking of Iowa, sounds familiar or that they're more expensive than they need to be.
It's never a good thing when the Democratic politician sounds more sane than the supposedly objective journalist, but Van Hollen responded by declaring that, "election security is vital in order to protect free and fair elections, and that is why I'm continuing to press for a bipartisan bill here in the United States Senate, a bill I co-sponsored with Senator Marco Rubio, other Republicans and Democrats."
Van Hollen then reverted back to typical Democratic talking points, "I hope everyone agree to from the trial is that we need to protect our country from foreign interference. Of course, we have a president who is spewing the propaganda of Putin with respect to Ukraine interfering in 2016 when all our intelligence agencies say it is Russia, but that just highlights the importance of moving forward on this important issue of protecting our elections against Russian attacks and other foreign attacks."
Here is a transcript for the February 4 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Velshi and Ruhle
1:21 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: The House has tried to do a lot as far as election security and it has gotten roadblocked in the Senate. As long as we're talking 2020, is it going to become more challenging for Democrats to talk about the importance of election security when look what just happened in Iowa in the last 24 hours?
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, obviously we're disappointed in the fact they didn't have a timely result. The most important issue of course is that they be accurate at the end of the day so people have confidence in them, but no, election security is vital in order to protect free and fair elections, and that is why I'm continuing to press for a bipartisan bill here in the United States Senate, a bill I co-sponsored with Senator Marco Rubio, other Republicans and Democrats. It is called the Deter Act. It is designed to make sure we stay out front. That if Russia or any other country gets caught interfering in our elections again, there will immediately be very swift and very tough penalties on the Russian economy in order to prevent that interference in the first place, and if there's one thing I hope everyone agree to from the trial is that we need to protect our country from foreign interference. Of course, we have a president who is spewing the propaganda of Putin with respect to Ukraine interfering in 2016 when all our intelligence agencies say it is Russia, but that just highlights the importance of moving forward on this important issue of protecting our elections against Russian attacks and other foreign attacks.
