Donalds spars with CNN’s Bash over 2020 election claims

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) on Sunday joined CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he and host Dana Bash spared over 2020 election claims.

Bash asked Donalds if Congress should follow the Electoral Count Act, which had an update passed in 2022 that will apply to certification of the 2024 presidential election.

“Look, I think when you’re talking about the election this November, the thing that people want is that local jurisdictions follow the law passed by the states,” Donalds said. “As long as everybody does that, there’s not going to be any problem certifying this election this November.”

Donalds began talking about the country needing a president who is going to “secure our border.” Bash tried to interject and say her question was about whether he will follow the new law. Donalds partially deflected the question and reiterated his previous answer.

“I’ve been very clear, Dana, as long as states and jurisdictions follow election procedures in their states, there will be no problem for me or anybody on Capitol Hill,” he said.

Bash responded by saying Donalds was leaving a “giant loophole,” because there is evidence that the states did follow proper procedures in the 2020 election.

“That’s not a loophole,” Donalds replied. “If you look at what happened in Pennsylvania, Arizona and other jurisdictions in 2020, they did not follow election procedures passed by the state legislature. That’s an empirical fact.”

Bash again said there is “no evidence of widespread fraud” and pointed to the dozens of legal cases that proved her point.

Donalds said the state Supreme Court in Pennsylvania counting ballots three days after the polls closed was a violation of a state law and represented “one example” to back up his point.

“Congressman, this has been litigated, and I’m assuming that a lot more will be litigated. Let’s just hope that everybody watches the votes counted and takes a breath and lets them be counted, particularly in Pennsylvania, which doesn’t start to count by law until Election Day,” Bash said before shutting down the interview.