State of Florida has charged and is in the process of arresting
20 individuals across the state for voter fraud.
These folks voted illegally in this case and there's gonna be other grounds for
other prosecutions in the future.
They are disqualified from voting because they've been convicted of either murder or
sexual assault and they do not have the right to vote florida.
Governor. Ron DeSantis is little publicity stunt
regarding election fraud or
voter fraud is currently imploding right before our very eyes.
In an effort to both pander to Trump and right wing voters who are completely
convinced that our electoral system is rife with voter fraud.
DeSantis decided to form what's referred to as Florida's election investigation
office.
And recently he announced that 20 individuals had committed voter fraud and
that they're being prosecuted as a result.
But those prosecutions are likely to be dropped because it turns out it was
the failure of the state government in regard to what happened here.
So let me give you the details.
Now, the 20 individuals who were arrested were previously imprisoned for
some pretty serious crimes, including murder and sexual misconduct.
And even though voters in florida overwhelmingly passed an initiative,
a ballot initiative that allowed for
convicted felons to exercise their voting rights.
There are exceptions to people who served time for murder or for rape.
And so in this case, the individuals who were arrested had that in their record and
weren't supposed to vote.
But the problem is they were told that they could vote by officials in florida.
So let me give you the details.
Several of those arrested have told media outlets or
authorities that they had no idea they were not eligible to vote.
In court documents filed in five counties, most say at least one official
government body, in most cases a local election supervisor,
incorrectly indicated to them that they could vote,
including allowing them to register and even sending them voter cards in the mail.
And I want to give you a few of the specific examples that were reported about
because you'll notice a theme here.
Okay, so
let's start with Peter Washington who's a 59 year old black man from Orlando.
Peter Washington received a voter registration form in the mail, filled
it out and mailed it back to the Orange County supervisor of elections office.
Read an affidavit filed by authorities in Orange County court.
The Orange County supervisor of elections mailed him a voter card.
Now there's another person Michelle struggling.
A 52 year old black woman from Eatonville, convicted in 1993 of second degree murder,
told investigators during an august 5th interview at her house that she quote,
could not read or write very well and did not understand questions related to
her status as an ex felon on registration paperwork.
But Orange County election officials mailed her a voter card after she
registered, which led her to believe that she was able to vote.
Here's another individual.
Again, pay very close attention to the trend here.
The pattern you've got leo Grant, a 55 year old black man from South Bay.
He told authorities that a local election office sent him a voter identification
card and was able to vote without issue.
Grant told the Miami herald quote, I don't really understand how did I commit fraud.
I don't understand any of this stuff and
I also think it's incredibly important to juxtapose the way these
individuals were treated versus how others who have been convicted
of election fraud had been treated okay because there were a few like
legitimate cases of election fraud in the state of florida and they
were all republican voters who tried to vote twice or voted in some illegal way.
There was no press conference announcing their arrests.
Rhonda Santis didn't make a spectacle out of them.
Let's go to the last graphic here.
There have been three arrests made in the villages,
A Republican stronghold in central Florida related to people admitting they voted
twice in the 2020 election.
DeSantis did not hold events highlighting those arrested,
each of whom entered pretrial diversion programs and avoided jail time.
Does any of this surprise you, Cenk?
>> No, it doesn't, but it should be a much, much bigger deal.
So first of all, I'm gonna tell you why DeSantis did this.
It's really important for
you understand the political tricks that these scummy politicians play.
And by the way, I think DeSantis should be in prison over this.
I'll get to that in a second.
So number one though, let's look at the disparity.
These people were sent voter registration forms, they didn't even ask for.
This is 100% entrapment.
The state, DeSantis' government sends them a voter registration form, they're like,
what is this?
They're like fill it out, fill it out, fill it out.
And then they fill it out, and they go, okay, great, now you can vote,
go vote, go vote.
And they go vote, and then go, aha, you're under arrest.
They're almost all black.
He walks them out early in the morning, wakes everybody up.
Criminal lives here, criminal.
You're the one who set him up and walks them out in their underwear.
>> Yes. >> Meanwhile,
there's actually voter fraud in the state.
As Ana explained, it's done by Republicans, actual voter fraud.
They voted twice for Trump, why?
Because they're criminals, and they love to cheat.
Okay, did they get walked out in their underwear?
No, press conference, no.
Are they present?
No, community service and all that crap, right?
But he's like, look at scary black people, look at how they voted illegally.
You know why?
So now let's talk about why he did it.
Number one, of course, he wants to scare racist white people in Florida.
Not all the white people in Florida are racist, obviously, right?
But the ones that are racist, they love this stuff.
They eat it for breakfast.
They're like, scary black man.
[SOUND] I'm voting DeSantis.
Okay, that's point one.
Point two, he's like, look at me, I'm a tough guy.
I'm stamping out voter fraud.
And number three, voter fraud is a big problem, big problem.
We have to restrict all voting.
We have to make sure you take away voting rights from black people, poor people.
Anybody that might vote Democratic, take away their rights,
take away all their goddamn rights.
And then finally, this is the most important one.
The voters of Florida overwhelmingly approved the ballot measure that said that
ex felons could vote not by the way people convicted on murder and sex charges.
Those are the ones DeSantis purposely sent voter registration forms so
he could do this political stunt to, okay?
But overall, both right wing and left wing and
give the voters that were right wing that voted for that credit, right?
In Florida, said no, no, no, if they served their time, let them vote, okay?
But DeSantis doesn't like that,
cuz he thinks they're more likely to vote for Democrats.
So this is him trying to scare the crap out of any expelling and
say you better not vote.
If you vote, I'm gonna arrest you, right or wrong, and
I'm gonna put you in jail and take away your freedom.
This is the party that runs on freedom.
DeSantis should spend a day in jail for
every day those people are in jail, cuz he's the one who did it.
He's the criminal who set up this entrapment in the first place.
>> And I wanna give one specific individual a lot of credit.
He's an attorney by the name of Larry Davis, and
he has decided to represent some of the wrongfully charged individuals pro bono.
So they will get legal representation.
Some of them, I don't know exactly how many of them, or
which individuals in particular.
He doesn't wanna name any names as of now, but he's gonna represent them for free.
And that's so important, because we're talking about people who have
dealt with our justice system, likely have no resources to defend themselves
against what Ron DeSantis and the state and local government has done to them.
And so that representation can make all the difference.
And he says this in regard to what you had referenced earlier, Cenk,
the individual who was pulled out of his home in the middle of the morning,
barely even dressed.
Larry Davis says, quote, he was in his underwear,
and they would not let him get clothed before taking him to jail.
There were people in his backyard who were armed, and they used a helicopter.
It disrupted the entire neighborhood very early in the morning.
Now again, it's really important to understand when we say that this is
a political stunt that has very real victims.
We're being real here.
Because again, how can you deny that when you juxtapose the treatment of the man
who was dragged out of his home and his underwear early in the morning to how
the people from the villages who voted twice for Trump were treated right now?
If you suspect that someone committed a nonviolent crime, maybe don't do
any of what we saw with the guy getting dragged out of his home in underwear.
He's not a dangerous person.
And in this case,
it appears that he's wrongfully being targeted because state and local officials
didn't do their job in making sure that they're checking things twice.
And not sending voter registration forms and
mail-in ballots to individuals who do not have the eligibility to vote.
>> Yeah, so look, I'm gonna get to the people at fault here,
other than DeSantis as usual.
But first, I wanna give credit.
I normally tell you about all the things that Politico does wrong, but
Politico did a great piece here.
And it was a writer by the name of Matt Dixon that uncovered this.
And we're always fair, give credit where credit is due, great job by Politico and
finding the facts.
Okay, so now, the people that are at fault on top of this, and this is Democrats.
Democrats, he's your opponent.
He has done something terrible.
Would you like to do something?
You know that the rest of the media is not gonna cover it unless it becomes
a political fight.
You have to make it a political fight so they cover what a crook DeSantis is.
My guess is Democrats as always, we'll drop it, drop it.
They'll find a thousand excuses.
No, if I was a Democrat running against DeSantis, I'd be like, look,
I want those criminals from the villages dragged down in their underwear right now.
Put them in goddamn prison.
And if you put these people that you obviously entrapped in prison,
I wanna investigate the judge.
Is he a Republican? Did he vote for Trump?
Did he vote for DeSantis?
You guys wanna investigate the FBI?
Let's go, let's go.
I'm gonna investigate the judge who also allowing this in any way,
shape or form probable cause, where the hell is the problem cause?
Look guys, here, look at how clear this is.
Now I'm quoting Slate.
The head of the election police, a DeSantis appointee,
explicitly told local election supervisors that they were not at fault,
contradicting the governor's claims.
It was the state, DeSantis' officials that were the ones that said they can vote.
I wanna investigate them.
I want them in prison.
They're the ones who did voter fraud.
I want them in prison.
And then what happens, a huge controversy.
Should they be in prison?
Should they not be in prison?
And we're talking about how Republicans cheated, and
should the Republicans who cheated be in prison or not?
But Democrats, no, no, no, no, DeSantis is in the elites.
So those poor guys who got dragged out in their underwear and
their lives ruined, no, that's okay.
They're not elite, they're not elite.
So Democrats think, who cares?
Who cares that they're in prison?
Who cares?
DeSantis, he's among the elites.
We can't say anything, CNN will yell at us.