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

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?”

rynzcycle,

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.

ganksy,
@ganksy@lemmy.world avatar

Oh no, not SCRUTINY!! GOPs kryptonite.

charonn0,
@charonn0@startrek.website avatar

What a snowflake. He literally whines about being interrupted.

MammyWhammy,

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.

Transporter_Room_3,
@Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website avatar

you can literally make up anything and your base would eat it up

They know.

They do. Every day.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

It shouldn’t be all that surprising that John Ashcroft’s son has a total lack of imagination and creativity.

RizzRustbolt,

The Ashcrofts have always been smooth-brained. But Jay’s is so smooth that quarks could ice skate on it.

Octavio,

Oh, wow. I hadn’t put 2 and 2 together that this is John Ashcroft’s kid. Chip off the old block it appears. 😂

tacomama,

Let the eagle soar!

UnderpantsWeevil,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

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”.

moog,

Ashcroft got absolutely roasted holy Christ. “Duh duh duh huh what??? There have been allegations! I just don’t know them”

Potatos_are_not_friends,

Um um um… They’re in Hunter Bidens laptop! And in Hilary’s email! And uh… Pizzagate. Um… PEDOPHILES! VOTER FRAUD!

inclementimmigrant,

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.

Facebones,

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?!”

Natanael,

“innocence is supposed to be a legal defense, but you’re refusing to let somebody defend themselves even if you have no reason to think they did anything wrong - everybody should be worried!”

RampantParanoia2365,

Wow. The look of utter and genuine surprise at how our government functions is absolutely priceless.

Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug,

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.

givesomefucks,

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

newthrowaway20,

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.

maniclucky,

Yeah. When a secretary of state positively asserts that there have been allegations that the sitting president of the United States has engaged in insurrection, making them answer “what did he do?” is the only next thing that should be asked and no deviations should be allowed.

rynzcycle,

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.

Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug,

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.

Chainweasel,

The host cut him off to keep him on track so he can ruin his own argument instead of changing the subject.

PoopingCough,

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.

randon31415,

Can’t reason people out of things they didn’t reason themselves into.

LillyPip, (edited )

‘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…’

Tbird83ii,

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.

WhatsHerBucket,
@WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve got a few boat rides and some cash that says otherwise

badaboomxx,

Sorry, but under the precedent of “you are, but what am I?” That argument ca not be used anymore plus one

Suavevillain,
@Suavevillain@lemmy.world avatar

The GOP can never actually explain their reasoning when people push back usually.

lolcatnip,

Almost like they have no reasoning!

badbytes,

Drrrrrh. Potato

mastefetri,

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?

Jaysyn,
Jaysyn avatar

Pandering to his supporters.

RestrictedAccount, (edited )

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.

SaltySalamander,
SaltySalamander avatar

It's pretty easy. Step into the 21st century with the rest of us and use a fucking ad blocker.

grue,

Or better yet, rip the video from the shitty site and reupload it somewhere that doesn’t try to abuse you.

RestrictedAccount,

I run pi-hole. I think that may be what was hanging it.

psycho_driver,

C’mon don’t resort to childish name calling. It’s Xitter, filled with juicy Xits.

ChunkMcHorkle, (edited )
@ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world avatar

deleted by creator

RainfallSonata,

Melting down is the new “slammed.”

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