BEN WEINGARTEN – EDITOR, REAL CLEAR INVESTIGATIONS Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And it would appear that justice is not being continues
to not being handed out in an even manner. You've
got the DOJ threatening election offices for cleaning up their
voter rules as being potentially discriminatory against who Ben Wygarden
Joints has edited real clear investigations. Who are they discriminating

(00:20):
against by getting dead people off those voter rolls? Ben?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, well, thanks for having me. And you know, it's
very interesting the DOJ, particularly the Civil Rights Division, by
their standards having to provide your documentary proof of your birthplace,
citizenship proof, those constitute discriminatory standards qualifications for getting on

(00:46):
the voter rolls and voting. So if that is the
premise from which you're working, then an awful lot of
things that might seem to be common sense measures when
it comes to cleaning the voter roles might appear discriminatory.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
And really the point.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Of this, to step back, is we've had a massive
influx of non citizens, including illegal aliens, into this country
for the last four years. As I noted, to get
to be an eligible registered voter on a federal basis,
minimally in almost every state, documentary proof of citizenship may

(01:21):
not be required by the states at this point. The
Republican controlled House tried to change that with the Save Act,
it has stalled out, and so consequently, we know that
there are thousands of non citizens sitting on the voter
roles right now, and probably more than at any time
in the past because of the massive surge that we've had.
So in the face of that, you have the doj

(01:43):
not saying to the states and other authorities, here are
all the things you want to do to make sure
your voter roles are clean. On the contrary, in the
face of several states removing thousands of these non citizens,
they're telling the states, here are all the restrictions on
removing people from the voter roles that you're going to
be subjected to. And so when they talk about discriminatory,

(02:06):
potentially discriminatory efforts to remove people from the roles, that
should be read as a chilling threat not just to
state and local authorities, but also to third party non
governmental groups i e. Election integrity watchdogs of course, generally
conservative ones, who are trying to work with state and
local authorities to identify populations of people who ought to

(02:29):
be removed from the roles and work with the states
to challenge those voter those ineligible voters, are potentially ineligible
voters and get them stricken. That is what this policy
is about. And it's remarkable that the guidance comes out
just a couple months from election day.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Guidance.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
They call that guidance.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
You know, it's non binding guidance. But it's sort of
like it was the same thing with the social media
censorship from the government. When the government comes to your
company and says, boy, you might have a problem here.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
You really ought to.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Consider taking down these accounts or targeting these narratives on
x or on Facebook. It does so with the full
power to the federal government to break you. It's not
like a voluntary Oh we just recommend you do xyz.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
We may follow this rad for the DOJ to intervene.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah, we'll file lawsuits against you, wreck your life, will
take all your money, and then maybe will get reversed.
I guess you know when you if you can afford
a lawyer. But what this does to every American who
is legal to vote, it negates our vote. Every time
someone votes illegally, it negates my vote.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And I think Senator Mike Lee, who I reached out
to in connection with this story. I think he was
very blunt and straightforward. He said, the Department of Justice
is clearly trying to intimidate state governments into allowing voter fraud,
and he thinks that this is responsive to the fact
that Democrats are embarrassed about the fact that thousands of
non citizens have been removed, because they claim this is

(04:02):
not a real problem, it doesn't exist. It's a made
up conspiracy theory on the right. But to your point, obviously,
to the extent you care about foreign interference in the elections,
there's no more direct foreign interference in an election than
having non citizens who are ineligible to vote in this
country voting. It obviously cancels out every legal vote, it

(04:23):
can dilute the legal vote. And even before this, it's
worth noting that because non citizens, including illegal aliens, are
counted in the census, congressional districts across the country are
drawn based upon all of the people, not all of
the citizens, in jurisdictions around the country. So already we

(04:45):
have foreign interference in our elections by dint of our representation.
Certain states have artificially lost congressional seats and therefore votes
in the Electoral College because of the illegal alien population
in other states, artificially swelling the populations in those states.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
True.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
So this is a clear and present danger to election
integrity and representation in this country.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well said, sir, appreciate your time. Thank you. Ben Winegarden,
editor at Real Clear Investigations,