More than 700,000 North Carolinians had to go without congressional representation for months after Leslie McCrae Dowless, a GOP operative, illegally collected and sometimes filled in absentee ballots on behalf of Republican Mark Harris’ campaign this year. That election was widely covered in the news so it’s probably a bad time for any Republican to be busted on audio admitting to voter suppression, especially a guy working for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Justin Clark, a senior political adviser and senior counsel to the “president’s” re-election campaign, told influential Republicans in Wisconsin, a swing-state, that the GOP has “traditionally” relied on voter suppression to compete in battleground states — but now it will be able to “start playing offense” in 2020 due to relaxed Election Day rules. The Associated Press obtained an audio recording from American Bridge of the private event in which it appears that Clark opened his mouth and stuck both feet in it while admitting that Republicans have in the past, and still plan to suppress votes.
“Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places,” Clark said in a meeting of the Republican National Lawyers Association’s Wisconsin chapter. “Let’s start protecting our voters. We know where they are. … Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”
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Clark told the AP he was actually referring to false accusations that the party engages in voter suppression.
“As should be clear from the context of my remarks, my point was that Republicans historically have been falsely accused of voter suppression and that it is time we stood up to defend our own voters,” Clark said. “Neither I nor anyone I know or work with would condone anyone’s vote being threatened or diluted and our efforts will be focused on preventing just that.”
That’s not what he was saying to the group, though, that included state Senate’s top Republican, Scott Fitzgerald, along with the executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.
“We’ve all seen the tweets about voter fraud, blah, blah, blah,” Clark said. “Every time we’re in with him, he asks what are we doing about voter fraud? What are we doing about voter fraud?’ The point is he’s committed to this, he believes in it and he will do whatever it takes to make sure it’s successful.”
“Cheating doesn’t just happen when you lose a county,” Clark told the AP. “Cheating happens at the margin overall. What we’re going to be able to do, if we can recruit the bodies to do it, is focus on these places. That’s where our voters are.”
“If there’s bad behavior on the part of one side or the other to prevent people from voting, this is bad for our democracy,” Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) said in response to Clark’s comments. “And frankly, I think whoever does that, it will work to their disadvantage. It will make them look, frankly, stupid.”
There is zero evidence of widespread voter fraud in Wisconsin, and in the audio, Clark said he had Trump’s approval. But, there is evidence of voter suppression, and Clark admitted to that to a room full of Republicans. We have the receipts!
Featured image via Political Tribune’s gallery
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