According to the media, casting doubt on the outcome of an election is bad, unless you are portraying Republicans as a bunch of racist vote suppressors. That's what Stephanie Ruhle and Al Sharpton did on MSNBC's Tuesday morning Election Day Coverage with Sharpton claiming his National Action Network is keeping their eyes out to prevent a repeat of 2018.
Talking about Georgia, Ruhle asked Sharpton, "Reverend Al, we just heard from Georgia, a state long criticized for voter suppression. What are you watching out for today and what is your advice to voters?"
The media has routinely denounced GOP poll watchers as conspiracy theorists overly concerned with fraud, but that's because they're watching for Democrat fraud. Sharpton claimed his kind of poll watchers are the just ones, that expecting a racist conspiracy is never wrong. "I am watching out to make sure that there are no signs of intimidation, and that there are no purging of a lot of voters as what we saw in Georgia, particularly when we had the gubernatorial race with the incumbent and Stacey Abrams just a couple of years ago."
Can we get a reality check on the Rev. Al Aisle? Sharpton's claim of voter purging is hard to square with the fact that Georgia's 2018 voter turnout was a record high, but could be expected as his hypocrisy on the issue is nothing new.
He added that his organization would be present at polling places in South Carolina and Mississippi. "There's a potential in the Deep South to see three blacks win in Senate races. And whether they are black candidates or not, there's clearly an opportunity to see the Senate flip." But Jamie Harrison lost in South Carolina, and Mike Espy lost in Mississippi, and Adrian Perkins lost in Louisiana.
This segment was sponsored by Progressive.
Here is a transcript for the November 3 show:
MSNBC
Election Day: Decision 2020
9:24 AM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Joining us to discuss, former secretary of homeland security Jeh Johnson and host of Politics Nation here on MSNBC, and National Action Network President Reverend Al Sharpton. Reverend Al, we just heard from Georgia, a state long criticized for voter suppression. What are you watching out for today and what is your advice to voters?
AL SHARPTON: I am watching out to make sure that there are no signs of intimidation and that there are no purging of a lot of voters as what we saw in Georgia, particularly when we had the gubernatorial race with the incumbent and Stacey Abrams just a couple of years ago. So we have people there on the ground, National Action Network has an office there in Atlanta that's looking out for that in Georgia. We're also watching closely in South Carolina, where Jaime Harrison is a real threat to Lindsey Graham and in Mississippi with Mike Espy.There's a potential in the Deep South to see three blacks win in Senate races. And whether they are black candidates or not, there's clearly an opportunity to see the Senate flip, and we see things like the George Floyd Policing Act and the John Lewis Voting Act be able to move forward that has not been able to do so under Republican control of the Senate under Mitch McConnell.
