Ohio governor battles with CNN host over election security issues
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday declined to endorse Republican efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election but disagreed sharply with his CNN interviewer on what has undermined confidence in the electoral process.
“We have not seen anything that rises to the level that would have changed the outcome of the election,” the Republican governor said, when asked about efforts by significant numbers of House and Senate Republicans to prevent the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory by Congress on Jan. 6.
But DeWine, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” also endorsed an idea by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to create a commission to study voter security. And he pushed back against host Jake Tapper’s assertion that the only reason so many Republicans don’t believe that Biden won is because of presidential lies. (“They have been lied to, governor,” Tapper said.)
“No, timeout. The big picture with changes in technology, potential hacking, all of these things,” DeWine responded. He also said the GOP challenge needed to be placed in "historical perspective," citing a failed challenge to the presidential results in Ohio in 2004.
The interview got more contentious as Tapper continued to insist that the real issue is not voter fraud but doubts about the system created by President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that he had been cheated out of victory. “This is about lies that undermine the democracy,” Tapper said.
“Jake, you can make that point,” DeWine said, “but I'll go back to my point that I think is valid as well. And what is valid about it is that we have a lot of people in this country who are questioning this election. That is a problem.”
DeWine added later of Tapper's placing the blame on the president, ”Not that simple.”
Tapper responded, “It is that simple.”
