Kasie Hunt, chief national affairs analyst joined Neue Day on Tuesday to discuss CNN’s latest reason to hate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: “voter intimidation.”
Guest host Kaitlan Collins got the ball rolling by worrying about some changes to how the state conducts elections, “I want to ask you about something else though that’s happening in Florida where Ron DeSantis is now one of the state’s or one of the nation’s only election police forces, essentially. This has been signed into law. The voting reform bill creates a new electoral police force. This tool could prove to be quite powerful depending on the way he uses it. And I wonder what lens you’re viewing this through?”
After claiming that voter fraud is “extremely rare, if not basically non-existent,” Hunt strongly suggested there were some racist motivations behind the idea, “What’s, I Think, important to continue to watch in the case of DeSantis is that, especially in the American South, the history behind law enforcement groups that were focused on voting has a very dark and difficult past.”
Hunt then argued it doesn’t actually matter what the force does, only what people think it will do “And there is an intimidation factor regardless of what you actually are doing in terms of enforcing or — apart from the actual actions a force like this might take if you are someone who is trying to figure out how to vote, what do you feel, in terms of, ‘okay, if I take this risk, if I try to do this, am I going to get myself in trouble, is this a problem?’ That’s how voter intimidation works. So, I think as we’re reporting out the story and following this, it’s going to be really important to consider that kind of an impact.”
CNN is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It doesn’t matter that Florida isn’t intimidating voters, but if it falsely reports that it is, people will believe it, which will lead to a lower turnout, which they will then claim validates their false reporting.
Sponsored by Orkin.
This is the transcript from April 26, 2018.
CNN Neue Day
4/26/2022
7:28 AM ET
KAITLAN COLLINS: What’s going on in Florida? Ron DeSantis, one of Florida’s (or the country’s) only electoral police force is what I would like to inquire about. This has been signed into law. This is a bill to overhaul the voting system that establishes an election police force. It gives them the ability, depending on his use of it, to examine what’s going on in state elections. This begs the question: What lens are you using to view it?
KASIE HUNT: So, I mean, this — first of all, Republicans, we’re seeing them across the country try to tighten—to tighten– their voter laws, but also to increase the penalties in the event of voter fraud. It’s important to stress that voter fraud is rare in America, and if it did occur, Republicans would have informed us. The truth is that they were unable to succeed at any of the court levels.
DeSantis’ case is a reminder that the past of voting-focused law enforcement has been very troubled. And there is an intimidation factor regardless of what you actually are doing in terms of enforcing or — apart from the actual actions a force like this might take if you are someone who is trying to figure out how to vote, what do you feel, in terms of, “okay, if I take this risk, if I try to do this, am I going to get myself in trouble, is this a problem?” That’s how voter intimidation works. So, I think as we’re reporting out the story and following this, it’s going to be really important to consider that kind of an impact.
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