Republican senator branded ‘arsonist’ for false claims of election fraud

Chuck Todd confronted Wisconsin Senator and the Chair of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Ron Johnson, over his claims that President Trump may have lost the election because of widespread voter fraud without providing any evidence. 

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse called the Republican lawmakers planning to challenge the election results during the congressional certification process on January 6 “institutional arsonists".

“You made an allegation that there was widespread fraud. You have failed to offer specific evidence of that widespread fraud, but you're demanding an investigation on the grounds that there are allegations of widespread fraud,” Mr Todd told Mr Johnson on Meet The Press.

"You've started this fire and now you're saying, ‘oh, look at this, oh, my God, all these people believe what we told them’ because you didn't have the guts, to tell the truth, that this election was fair." 

Mr Johnson blamed the media for the current state of affairs. 

“This was started when the mainstream media dropped any pretence of being unbiased and actually chose sides during this election. This fire was started when you completely ignored, for example, our investigation of Hunter Biden,” Mr Johnson said. He said they found “no evidence of wrongdoing", but that after the election it was revealed that Mr Biden was the subject of a federal investigation.

The Independent reported on December 10 that President-elect Joe Biden’s son said in a statement: “I learned yesterday for the first time that the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs.”

On Meet The Press, Mr Johnson added that "Republicans and conservatives do not trust the mainstream media. And that is what is destroying the credibility of the media and our institutions," and tried to deflect any responsibility, saying: "I didn’t start this".

Mr Todd said that Mr Johnson had been carrying a lot of "crazy conspiratorial water for President Trump", when blaming Ukraine for interfering in the election instead of Russia and using his committee to investigate voter fraud because of unsubstantiated allegations.

Mr Todd asked: "Are you simply trying to curry favour with constituents of the president? Is that what this is all about? Is this a cynical political ploy?"

In response, Mr Johnson ploughed on with his claims that voter fraud could have swayed the election. “There is voter fraud,” he said. "We had one witness talk about 42,000 people voting twice in Nevada."

Mr Todd interrupted Mr Johnson saying: "Stop. You don't get to make these allegations that haven't been proven true."

Mr Johnson also blamed former director of the FBI James Comey, former acting director of the FBI Andrew McCabe and former CIA Director John Brennan for causing Americans to distrust their institutions. 

"Let me ask you this. Who carried the state of Wisconsin?" Mr Todd asked.

Mr Johnson awkwardly relented: "Well, Vice President Biden has won by 20 thousand votes."