Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, January 25, 2021

The Left calls it the “Big Lie.” Anyone who questions the veracity of even one of the seemingly impossible 80 million votes allegedly cast for Joe Biden in the 2020 election is deemed guilty of enabling or, worse, perpetuating the “insurrection” of Jan. 6, 2021. On that day, supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington, DC, to urge the U.S. Congress to investigate extensive evidence of fraud and irregularities surrounding the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election.

ABC News personality George Stephanopoulos is well versed in group think, so it was no surprise he ran with the “Big Lie” narrative in a Sunday interview with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

Paul rocked the former Bill Clinton operative with the reminder that, as a journalist, Stephanopoulos was obliged to remain objective and not take sides.

Stephanopoulos asked Paul if he accepted that the 2020 presidential election was “not stolen.”

“What I would say is that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur, we never had any presentation in court where we actually looked at the evidence. Most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, which is a procedural way of not actually hearing the question,” Paul explained.

“There were several states in which the law was changed by the secretary of state and not the state legislature. To me, those are clearly unconstitutionally and I think there’s still a chance that those actually do find their way up to the Supreme Court,” Paul added. “Were there people who voted twice? Were there dead people who voted? Were there illegal aliens who voted? Yes, and we should get to the bottom of it.”

Following the “Big Lie” playbook by rote, Stephanopoulos interrupted: “I have to stop you there. No election is perfect. But there were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court, all were dismissed. Every state certified the results. Can’t you just say the words, this election was not stolen?”

Paul responded: “What I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections, and 75 percent of Republicans agree with me, is that we do need to look at election integrity and we need to see if we can restore confidence in the elections.”

Stephanopoulos, who is a former press secretary for Democrat President Bill Clinton, then claimed Republican voters were “fed a big lie” by President Donald Trump that the election had been stolen.

Paul responded: “George, where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything’s a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything. Now you insert yourself in the middle and say that the absolute fact is that everything that I’m saying is a lie.”

“This election was not stolen!” Stephanopoulos angrily asserted. “The results were certified in every single state after counts and recounts.”

Paul fired back: “You’re saying there was no fraud and it’s all been investigated, and that’s just not true. You say we’re all liars. You just simply say we’re all liars.”

“I said it was a lie – that the election was stolen,” Stephanopoulos replied.

Paul responded: “There were lots of problems and there were secretaries of state who illegally changed the law and that needs to be fixed, and I’m going to work harder to fix it and I will not be cowed by people saying ‘Oh, you’re a liar.’ ”

Paul continued: “Let’s talk about the specifics of it. In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of absentee votes had only the name on them and no address. Historically, those were thrown out. This time they weren’t. They made special accommodations ’cause they said, ‘Oh, it’s a pandemic and people forgot what their address was.’ ”

Stephanopoulos said, “I’m standing by facts. There are not two sides to facts. I did not say this was a perfect election, I said the results were certified, I said it was not stolen. It is a lie.”

“There are not two sides to this story,” Stephanopoulos added. “This has been looked at in every single state.”

Paul responded: “You’re forgetting who you are. You’re forgetting who you are as a journalist if you think there’s only one side. You’re inserting yourself into the story to say I’m a liar because I want to look at election fraud and I want to look at secretaries of state who illegally changed the voter laws.”

In true group think “Big Lie” fashion, ABC fittingly described its summary of the exchange in a post headlined as: “Sen. Rand Paul continues making false claims of 2020 election fraud.”

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  2020 election, Sen. Rand Paul trips Stephanopoulos in election fraud debate, WorldTribune.com