2y ago

GOP Secretary of State Melts Down When Asked To Explain Bid to Throw Biden Off Ballot

www.rollingstone.com

Jay Ashcroft flopped when faced with the most dreaded predicament amongst grandstanding blowhards: a follow-up question

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s attempt to justify his ludicrous threat to have President Joe Biden removed from the state’s electoral ballot spiraled into chaos over the most basic of questions: “How so?”

During a Monday interview with CNN’s Boris Sanchez, the Republican was asked how he justified his threats to have Biden removed from the state’s ballot in retaliation for recent attempts to remove Trump from state ballots on grounds that his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election constitute insurrection. The constitutionality of such a removal will soon be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

“What would then be your justification for removing Joe Biden from the ballot in Missouri. Has he engaged in your mind in some kind of insurrection?” Sanchez asked.

“There have been allegations that he’s engaged in insurrection,” Ashcroft replied. He was then met with the most dreaded predicament amongst grandstanding blowhards: a follow-up question.

“How so?” Sanchez asked, prompting Ashcroft to demand that Sanchez stop interrupting him. “You can’t say something like that and not back it up,” Sanchez countered.

“You interrupted me before I could back it up,” a flustered Ashcroft complained. “Are you scared of the truth?”

104 comments

Ashcroft: "Are you scared of the truth?"
Sanchez: "Oh, I am not terrified of the truth at all, seems like you might be."
You need to watch those clips in the Xitter link. Sanchez is on fucking fire and does not let up.
- I'll watch it somewhere, but it's not going to be at TwitX.
  Edit here: https://youtu.be/pIsVB-HM8?feature=shared
  The most relevant part starts around 4:22 but the whole thing is good (well, up until the YouTuber jumps in with his take, which fortunately is after the CNN segment)
  
  Holy shit that was embarrassing for Jay Ashcroft. He proved he's a legal scholar equivalent of a nepo baby because he is so grossly incompetent at understanding how state law works. If this guy was your attorney, the very real question of capability and competency would come up.
  Hopefully his dad will help him understand the law better because having 2 J Ashcrofts be that hilariously dumb is a bad look.
  
  Thanks for the non-shitter link
  
  Fantastic. 🍿
  I also immediately switched off when the YouTuber started talking.
  
  Jesus Christ it’s like these people are in preschool or something
  
  "b-b-but, but twump was taken off for allegations, and allegations mean stuff someone said, so I heard someone say Biden bad so slippery slope then I take bidens name off"
  He said "well if they do it, slippery slope, I'll do it!" He SERIOUSLY used a well known logical fallacy to prove his point.
  my grasp upon my own native tongue is a failure, as I simply don't have the words to describe the level of idiocy we see regularly from republicans.
  
  I couldn't get over his use if the word "extrajudicial" to describe what's happening in court cases. What a bumbling moron.
  
  BTC is actually a pretty well established political YT'er and has some great rundowns of the political climate. I'm sure you'd change your tune if you watched a few vids.
- We need more journalism that pushes back like this.
  
  We certainly do, but we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking that would accomplish much with these fuckers. They'll just start avoiding the journalists that refuse to stay neutral or lob them softballs.
  It's not like their supporters are going to shame them for doing that, either. I'm shocked any Republican talks to any reporter that isn't from Fox News anymore.
Isn’t Missouri the show me State? Is this fucktard going to show any evidence of insurrection or just blather on about how other governors have made the claim of insurrection against Biden? My god Republicans are stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid to the fucking core.
- That's why they attack education constantly. Education prevents conservatives.
  
  We're seeing a lot of conservative action and behaviour on college campuses these days though. Go far enough to the liberal side and you end up standing right next to the conservatives!
- Please stop assigning stupidity to things that are openly and brazenly malicious.
  
  He's brazenly malicious and stupid. You can be both. He is both.
  
  To be fair, he did look genuinely shocked about the job of Secretary of State.
  
  The problem here is the ambiguity of "Republicans". If you mean politicians, then yes, they're malicious AF and often pretty competent about it. If you mean their voters, then most of them are just abysmally stupid (and arrogant enough to think they're smart).
- Their business is only in propping up accusations, so he's just gonna blather.
  
  deleted by creator
- Missouri is one of the last and proudest slave states (followed only by Arkansas, Texas, and Florida - go figure?). They routinely slaughtered Kansans for their refusal to brutalize and own other humans. Rush Limbaugh is from there. Ferguson police just shoot black people for sport and openly laugh about it. It's an infected polyp on the anus of racist America with some of the worst, most hateful people scowling and lurching around in it.
  That this chud would be representing the people of Missouri is not a surprise at all.
  They do have some lovely scenery though, and there are a few decent people there as well. Just - on the political front, you can pretty well expect when you hear Missouri it won't be good news.
  
  In the top 20 most crime-ridden cities in America, St. Louis, Missouri is #1.
  Conservative boogeyman Chicago is #20.
  https://sports.yahoo.com/20-cities-united-states-highest-160029176.html
- No. Missouri is the "blow me" state.
The follow-up question was literally "What accusations are you making against Biden to justify removing him from the ballot?"
Like dude, you can literally make up anything and your base would eat it up. You couldn't even do that. What a moron, and he'll still lose almost zero support from his base because they didn't actually pay attention.
- The Ashcrofts have always been smooth-brained. But Jay's is so smooth that quarks could ice skate on it.
  
  Oh, wow. I hadn’t put 2 and 2 together that this is John Ashcroft’s kid. Chip off the old block it appears. 😂
  
  Let the eagle soar!
- you can literally make up anything and your base would eat it up
  They know.
  They do. Every day.
- Like dude, you can literally make up anything and your base would eat it up.
  The reason doesn't matter. This is purely a tit-for-tat because Trump fell off the ballot in Colorado, Maine, and... I guess now Nevada? His base will still eat it up. Nobody who regularly votes for him is going to see the back end of this interview, just the headline, because they all think CNN stands for "Communist News Network".
- It shouldn't be all that surprising that John Ashcroft's son has a total lack of imagination and creativity.
The GOP can never actually explain their reasoning when people push back usually.
- Almost like they have no reasoning!
You can’t tell me this clown is not inbred. Or at least the progeny of some sort of greasy-haired weasel creature.
- His dad was afraid of the nipples on statues.
  I miss the days when he was the most embarrassing Attorney General J. Ashcroft in the country.
  
  I thought this was the same guy and was thinking he aged well
  
  His dad was afraid of the nipples on statues.
  In his dad's defense, you gotta be careful with those or you'll put your eye out.
- He's the son of former (G.W. Bush) U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft... soooo...
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Ashcroft
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ashcroft
  https://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/justice-is-blind-but-most-visitors-aren-t-1078680.php
  
  I knew asscraft was involved with this somehow.
  
  There it is. Was wondering if there was any relation, to the point where I had half a mind to look it up myself. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
  It's nepotism and cronyism all the way down.
  
  OOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Right!
  Well fucking hell, Missouri.
  
  deleted by creator
- some sort of greasy-haired weasel creature.
  Brutal imperialist torture lawyer, as it happens.
  
  Helped get us fucked in Iraq & Afghanistan shit weasel.
- Nature does in fact make mistakes.
- The tragic end result of a meerkat left alone with a vial of human growth hormone and a copy of atlas shrugged
Wow. The look of utter and genuine surprise at how our government functions is absolutely priceless.
Ashcroft got absolutely roasted holy Christ. "Duh duh duh huh what??? There have been allegations! I just don't know them"
- Um um um... They're in Hunter Bidens laptop! And in Hilary's email! And uh... Pizzagate. Um... PEDOPHILES! VOTER FRAUD!
- Sadly, I grew up in that state and I can tell you that a huge swath of the people that live there will see it the exact opposite.
  
  I'm not surprised. I'm in Virginia and I see MAGAts argue that having the gall to ask why is in and of itself an admission of guilt.
  "Bidens a traitor!"
  "Why?"
  "YOU KNOW WHY IF HE'S INNOCENT WHY YOU SO WORRIED ABOUT IT HUH?!"
What a snowflake. He literally whines about being interrupted.
Gosh, how rude. Ashcroft wanted to ride out the clock with a gish gallop and the mean interviewer wouldn't let him. What happened to journalistic standards?
Why would Rolling Stone link to Shitter rather than directly to the CNN interview?
They are enabling their oppressor
Edit: I tried to post the clip from CNN. After it hanging because it was stuck on the pop ups to allow it to track me even off their site and requests to push non stop ads to my cell phone in the middle of meetings and dinner I gave up.
There has to be a way.
- deleted by creator
- It's pretty easy. Step into the 21st century with the rest of us and use a fucking ad blocker.
  
  Or better yet, rip the video from the shitty site and reupload it somewhere that doesn't try to abuse you.
  
  I run pi-hole. I think that may be what was hanging it.
- C'mon don't resort to childish name calling. It's Xitter, filled with juicy Xits.
Oh no, not SCRUTINY!! GOPs kryptonite.
Pandering to his #fascist supporters.
‘What’s your legal argument?’
‘Your honour, it’s the perennial argument of I’m Rubber, You’re Glue, as put forth in the case of Billy vs Jimmy in the schoolyard, 1954. The teacher in that case argued that Billy was, in fact, glue…’
- I'm sorry, but Billy v Jimmy is not consistent with this nations Historical Traditions. Your argument needs to include a valid ruling from between 1776 and a time period that justifies my argument, whether or not the precedent at that time was to provide justice only to land-owning white men.
  So sayeth we Court Supreme.
  
  Sorry, but under the precedent of "you are, but what am I?" That argument ca not be used anymore plus one
  
  I've got a few boat rides and some cash that says otherwise
Melting down is the new "slammed."
No idea why the host keeps walking on the guests answers when just letting him talk is the best way to prove he obviously doesn't know shit.
- Didn't watch the video, but from the quotes he did wait...
  The Republican just claimed he was cut off so he couldn't answer, and then still wouldn't answer.
  He wants to have the "let me finish" argument where it just devolves to that. When given time to answer, they don't, just keep saying "let me finish" until they walk away.
  Remember, Republicans are toddlers, and they argue like that
  
  The host did cut him off a few times, but he cut him off specifically to keep him on focus to the questions at hand and not let him bloviate.
  
  I just watched, he does jump in once or twice, but seems like satellite delay awkwardness mostly.
  After laying out the question, "what are the (details of the) allegations of Biden's supposed insurrection" Sanchez gives him loads of time to look like the fool he is.
  
  but from the quotes he did wait
  didn't watch the video
  Okay buddy. Good for you I guess. You didn't watch and yet you have an opinion that's specifically related to watching.
- The host cut him off to keep him on track so he can ruin his own argument instead of changing the subject.
- Yeah i think the problem is when you just let them talk they will quickly change the subject and start up the gish gallop so interrupting is the only way to actually stay on topic. Otherwise you're just giving them a platform to spew a hundred lies without having a chance to refute anything.
Can't reason people out of things they didn't reason themselves into.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s attempt to justify his ludicrous threat to have President Joe Biden removed from the state’s electoral ballot spiraled into chaos over the most basic of questions: “How so?”
During a Monday interview with CNN’s Boris Sanchez, the Republican was asked how he justified his threats to have Biden removed from the state’s ballot in retaliation for recent attempts to remove Trump from state ballots on grounds that his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election constitute insurrection.
Ashcroft pivoted to pointing out that Colorado and Maine had moved to remove Trump from their ballots despite the former president not yet being convicted of acts of insurrection.
Last week,  Ashcroft wrote on X, formerly Twitter that while he expects “the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in & ensure the new legal standard for @realDonaldTrump applies equally to @JoeBiden!”
The states that have chosen to remove Trump from their ballot did so under allegations that the former president fomented the Jan. 6 certification-day riot that took place in the Capitol and went to great lengths to attempt to undermine the results of his 2020 election loss.
By contrast — and as Ashcroft exemplified in his blundered interview — the claim that President Biden has engaged in similar acts holds no water.
The original article contains 444 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 50%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
The video for those who'd like to watch and are hitting the RS paywall:
Twitter Link
It's pretty hilarious, he clearly didn't come prepared for the most basic of follow-up questions.
Drrrrrh. Potato

104 comments