Robert J. Hutchinson, an award-winning travel writer and the author of numerous books on popular Christianity and history, including "What Really Happened: The Lincoln Assassination" offers his take on the subject.
Sputnik: Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, said that GOP Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots, after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state. How likely is it that this conversation took place in this way, given that Graham later claimed he only sought to learn more about the process for verifying signatures, as, according to him, what happens in Georgia “affects the whole nation”?
Hutchinson: Even Raffensperger himself, said that […] he didn't actually say that […] he said that's how he construed it, meaning that's how he interpreted what Graham was asking. So that already makes me suspicious. I mean, that's what he was drawing, the conclusion that that's what he said. Not that he actually said that. Graham was merely asking how they verified signatures. And I can tell you that you could make an X on ballots and they would accept them. They don't […] I don't think they verify them at all. I mean, it's like when you go to the grocery store and they make you sign for using a credit card, it's just […] I do, I do this a lot. I just make like an X on the credit card and they accept it. So it's a sham and a fraud that they do much signature verification at all.
Sputnik: Georgia, a reliably Republican state with 16 electoral votes, is currently conducting a hand recount of roughly 5 million presidential ballots, which is expected to be completed by 20 November. Should we expect a change in the voting results after the state's recount?
Hutchinson: I doubt it. I mean, that's the problem with these things, is that proving any kind of fraud is very difficult, even if it exists. And so I think statistically, it's very unlikely that it's going to change the outcome in Georgia or anywhere else, for that matter.
Sputnik: So it's unlikely that Donald Trump will be able to recount votes in other states?
Hutchinson: I doubt it, because many of the lawsuits in other states were thrown out on technical grounds. So, for example, in Michigan, the poll watchers filed a lawsuit saying they, you know, that they they saw people backdating ballots and doing other things to make ballots correct, correcting ballots so they could be counted. And the judge, in that case, threw out the lawsuit because they said that the individuals lacked the standing to file a lawsuit, that only the Secretary of State could file the lawsuit.
And in Pennsylvania, one of the suits was thrown out of court because the Trump campaign, because the judge ruled that there were some Republican poll watchers that were allowed in to monitor the vote, but, and therefore, it wasn't true, that there were no Republican officials watching the vote. But the allegation was there were not enough poll watchers that they, in other words, they only, let in a few, and that they should have had a lot more.
But, so, as a result, the judges are throwing out these lawsuits on technical grounds, without actually disputing the main charge. So I doubt that they're going to be able to get any more recounts, because the judges are not allowing these lawsuits to go forward. They're very reluctant to interfere in an election […] unless there's massive evidence that they can prove in court. And that's the problem. Proving this stuff, even if it exists, is very difficult.
Sputnik: According to US law, any disagreement regarding the counting of votes must be resolved by December 8th. What picture of the electoral map, in your opinion, will we seem closer to the electoral vote?
Hutchinson: I don't think it's going to change much. I think, you know, Trump may possibly get the Georgia vote, but I think it's pretty much already set in stone. What's going to happen, I don't know if that's […] I mean, Georgia could potentially switch, but if they're not able to get the lawsuits about the Dominion vote-counting software passed, and if they're not able to get a judge to approve that lawsuit, I don't think there's any chance that this is going to be reversed.
Sputnik: Will the balance of power between the two parties change dramatically directly after the electoral vote?
Hutchinson: Yes and no. I mean, the presidency has a lot of power, but I think the Republicans will hold the Senate and the Democrats did not get their big blue wave that they thought was coming. So that means that half the country is going to do everything they can to stop them in their various efforts. So I think, the balance of party power, is going to remain pretty much the way it is, which is gridlock, which the stock market likes. They like when the government is helpless and can't do anything because that means they can't do anything to you.
Sputnik: Trump has refused to accept the results that are projecting Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, blaming fraud and voting irregularities that election officials in both parties have dismissed as baseless. Do you agree with this position?
Hutchinson: I think the election proves that our laws have to be radically reformed. Most countries outlaw voting by mail, because it has the potential to be fraudulent. The Democrats have been caught using fraudulent mail in ballots for more than 150 years. They tried to rig the election against Abraham Lincoln by using fake mail in ballots. You can look that up. That actually happened. So, and also, most countries require ID to vote.
I think, almost all the countries in Europe require ID to vote. But the Democrats have successfully pushed so that you don't need ID to vote. You can vote by mail, which makes fraud easier. And they also engage in the practice of ballot harvesting. That means they allow third party canvassers or companies to go around neighborhoods and, quote-unquote, help voters fill in their ballots. That is actually illegal in many states and I think it should be illegal nationwide.
I mean, basically, America has lost faith in its voting process because of the media.
You know, with all due respect, what the election of Donald Trump has shown Americans, is that the media are merely the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
You know, if Sputnik News is the propaganda arm of the Russian government, then CNN is the corporate owned propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
And Trump, Americans have always complained that the media are biased against conservatives and Republicans.
But the election of Donald Trump showed that they're absolutely out of their mind, nuts, and they are so fanatically against Trump and the Republicans. And for four years, Americans have watched as the people on CNN and in the news media have done nothing except spew hatred against Trump and the Republican Party.
And so now they expect us to trust them when they report the news about the election. And nobody does because they've seen them for four years say nothing except Republicans are evil and Donald Trump is Hitler. So why would you trust these same people who say, oh, guess what, Trump lost? It's just, you know, it's absurd. And then, they saw the manipulation of the polls.
The polls were just completely wrong again, as everybody knew they would be, because they were manipulated to suppress the vote and make it seem that resistance is futile. Trump's already lost, so don't bother to vote. So for all these reasons, Americans no longer trust the media. And because they no longer trust the media, they no longer trust the voting, because the media is declaring who wins and why should we believe them. You know, it seems to most Americans, honestly, went to bed. Trump was winning, seemingly to be winning by a landslide.
The Republicans were winning all across the country. He was ahead in all these battleground states. Then they announced, rightly or wrongly, they announced they were stopping the vote in some key states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina. And that never happens before. Why they stopped counting the ballots, why are they doing that? And everybody went to bed, and then, when they woke up, suddenly Joe Biden was almost ahead.
And so that seemed suspicious to people. Now they have explanations for that. They have all these all the, quote-unquote, media fact checkers have gone out, and tried to debunk this, and say, oh, no, no, they didn't stop counting the vote, they merely stopped reporting the results of the count.
That's what they're claiming. Tens of millions of Americans watch this with their own eyes, Trump being ahead, seem to be winning, Republicans everywhere. We're winning, and then they go to sleep. And the next thing, they wake up, and they they're told, oh, Biden is actually winning. So it just seems suspicious.
That doesn't mean you can, actually, vote fraud happened. It just seems suspicious. And the media, because of their unrelenting hatred of Donald Trump for four years, simply aren't trustworthy. Most people just don't believe them. And so they're trying desperately to tell Americans, oh, no, it's all fine.
Everything was legitimate. It was a very, very secure vote. Everything's fine. But because they spent the last four years being fanatically anti-Trump, nobody believes them. And that's the reality. So anyway, sorry, that's my rant!
My solution to fixing this would be to make 100 percent transparency. You have videotaping the counting of the vote you make. You have to have voter ID like they do in every country in Europe. You outlaw voting by mail. If you can't show up at a, at a, polling place, you don't get to vote. Sorry, that's just the way it's going to be. You outlaw ballot harvesting where people are allowed to go around and help people fill in their votes. And you have to take drastic measures to get people to have faith in the voting process again. Otherwise, the country is in serious, serious trouble.
