GOP Election Official's Biden Claim Crumbles Before His Very Eyes In CNN Grilling
CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Monday got into a heated exchange with Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) over his suggestion that President Joe Biden engaged in acts of insurrection.
Sanchez and Ashcroft were discussing whether former President Donald Trump should be allowed back on the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado and Maine, after he was removed from them for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Sanchez asked what would be Ashcroft’s “justification for removing Joe Biden from the ballot in Missouri.”
“Has he engaged, in your mind, in some kind of insurrection?” Sanchez asked Missouri’s top election official, who last week threatened to remove Biden from his state’s ballot in retaliation for the actions regarding Trump in Colorado and Maine.
“There have been allegations that he’s engaged in insurrection,” Ashcroft replied.
“How so?” Sanchez asked.
“No. Please let me finish,” Ashcroft said.
Missouri's Secretary of State is threatening to remove President Joe Biden from Missouri's state ballot in 2024.
He joins @Boris_Sanchez. Watch part of their conversation here: pic.twitter.com/1l0P6xdjyB— CNN News Central (@NewsCentralCNN) January 8, 2024
Sanchez told Ashcroft, “You can’t say something like that and not back it up.”
“I am continuing, but you interrupted me before I could back it up. Are you scared of the truth?” Ashcroft said.
“Oh, I am not terrified of the truth at all. It seems like you might be. Let’s hear what you have to say,” Sanchez countered.
The back-and-forth continued until Sanchez again asked: “What did Joe Biden do in your mind that equates insurrection? What allegations are you talking about?”
As Ashcroft alluded to vague allegations, the nature of which he did not explain, Sanchez asked for “specifics.”
“They made allegations, and all it took for former President Trump to be taken off the ballot in Colorado and in Maine were allegations,” Ashcroft said. “We should not be a country that removes people from the ballot based on allegations. I think you can agree with that.”
“I think it depends to a degree,” Sanchez replied.
Ashcroft then referred to Biden as Sanchez’s “guy.”
“My guy? Joe Biden is not my guy. You don’t know who my guy is,” Sanchez said. “The point is that it’s not clear whether the 14th Amendment is self-executing or not.”
“In other words, it doesn’t matter to a court at that point whether there was a conviction of Donald Trump for insurrection or not,” he went on. “That is a debate for the Supreme Court to have.”
