Video: Coleman abets Hannity’s falsity that canvass board favored Franken
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 8:18 am
- 4 Comments
Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity’s America” program Tuesday, described Minnesota’s election process as having favored rival Al Franken since the recount started. Coleman did not directly dispute host Sean Hannity’s assertion that the State Canvassing Board “was conflicted” and “only allowed the recount for … precincts that would tend to favor Al Franken.”
Video and transcribed excerpts after the jump.
Coleman:
All votes that are validly cast should be counted, particularly when it comes to absentee ballots — not just those in Democrat areas, and that’s what’s happened so far. …
There are a number of votes that have been double-counted … and a number of them, by the way, in Democrat areas … It was more than 25 precincts, in predominantly Democrat areas. …
The biggest pool of votes … were the absentee ballots. There were about 953 that were counted from heavily Democrat areas. …
Hannity:
The absentee ballots, they only went to the canvassing board and their decisions were conflicting. And they literally only allowed the recount for districts that would, or precincts that would tend to favor Al Franken. But they didn’t apply the same standards to districts where you did very well.
In his response to Hannity’s remarks, Coleman doesn’t say that the recount was statewide; that the state Supreme Court gave his campaign (and Franken’s) the power to reject any absentee ballots that local officials decided (on review) to count; or that the State Canvassing Board had two judges appointed by Republicans, outnumbering known affiliations for any other party on the panel.
The segment ends with a pitch for viewers to donate to Coleman’s cause.
4 Comments
Comment posted January 28, 2009 @ 10:14 am
This is Coleman’s first interview in a long time, and it’s national. Does he grant local interviews anymore? Perhaps he realizes friendly media like Hannity will give him a pass on statements like the ones Chris points out.
Comment posted January 28, 2009 @ 10:21 am
Yesterday he answered a few reporters’ questions on camera after the election contest trial adjourned for the day. He also answered election-related questions at a menorah-lighting ceremony in December. Fox can probably claim to have gotten Coleman’s first sit-down interview.
Comment posted January 28, 2009 @ 10:57 am
I had to watch it to see that the snippet of transcript was actually right. Wow. He just blatantly lied about ballots being counted only from Democratic areas. He even called them “Democrat” areas, just to be a dick as well as a liar.
Comment posted January 28, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
At the end of the election, the Coleman campaign told the Franken campaign to skip the recount and concede to save the taxpayer’s money. Now that the recount is over and Franken is ahead, what does Coleman do? Exactly what he told Franken NOT to do. Typical politician. Just goes to show how vital this process is.
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