President said or excuse it and using the same phrase to sidestep any question they are asked about why this guy wont commit to this basic principle of american democracy. What we want to make sure of is that we have a free and safe and Fair Election. The president will accept the results of a free and Fair Election. We believe hell win on november 3rd and with a free and Fair Election. So yes or no you will accept the Election Results if they come down the day or the day after election day . President trump and i will accept the results of a free and Fair Election. Is there a memo . Did they i mean, clearly, its a talking point. You know, did they have a Conference Call and agree on it . Lets use free and Fair Election. Before they started using free and Fair Election to gloss over what the president himself said, which is quite clear, the phrase free and Fair Election used to have actual meaning. Our government traditionally uses that phrase to discuss what it wants to see from governments in places like iraq or russia. President trump himself has used it during a discussion of venezuela one year ago today in fact. It not meant to be a wink or a nod or empty rhetoric or something that Vice President pence can nod his head as though hes given a lot of thought and really cares about it. It is just empty rhetoric. Thats what it turned into. Its a phrase thats supposed to mean something. America is in a position to call for others to have free and Fair Elections because we pride ourselves on that happening here. But now, that phrase is basically a dodge trying to answer a dodge for answering a question for which they have no answer. And it comes down to that burden of proof and there is no evidence of wide spread fraud, voter fraud to point to. Thats not stopping members of the administration from trying. Certainly not stopping the president. But earlier this month attorney general william barr tryingied push that idea with wolf blitzer. Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and cohorgs. He indicted someone in texas, 1700 ballots collected from people who could vote. He made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. Okay . That kind of thing happens with mail in ballots and everyone knows that. This guy. Keeping them honest, no, everyone doesnt know that. Its not true. Dont take our word for it. Take the word of, i dont know, the Justice Department. Yeah. Because after that interview, a Justice Department spokesperson acknowledged what attorney general barr said is not correct and blamed a memo with an inaccurate case. Hes there parking at wolf, which in fact what he is saying is not true and his own department came forward afterward and said oh, yeah, you know what . We gave him a bad memo. Barr attempted a different defense with wolf, listen. Youve said you were worried that a foreign country could send thousands of fake ballots. Thousands of fake ballots to people that might be impossible to detect. What are you basing that on . Im basing that, as ive said, repeatedly, im basing that on logic. Pardon . Logic. But have you seen any evidence that a foreign country is trying to interfere no, im saying creating foreign influence. People are concerned about foreign influence. People are concerned about alien life forms coming down and voting, too. Im sure some people are. What does that mean . People are concerned about . Okay. Im concerned about a lot of things. It doesnt mean, you know, im concerned about getting old. Doesnt mean you know. Who cares . People are concerned. Its not true. It actually matters. Its just not true. This time there is no actual evidence, just logic william barr is saying. That guy. I mean, apparently, William Barrs logic doesnt apparently require actual evidence. Its just stuff william barr thinks. Its also clear that barrs opinion is not universally held throughout the Justice Department, the one he is on top of. Here is the fbi director Christopher Wray yesterday. Now we have not seen historically any kind of coordinated National Voter fraud effort in a major election whether its by mail or otherwise. The fbi found no evidence. Ill say it again. The same fbi that is part of the Justice Department allegedly run by bill barr has found no such evidence. This morning President Trumps chief of staff, guess what he did . Goes after Christopher Wray. Of course, watch. Your own fbi director said he seen no evidence of wide spread voter fraud by mail or otherwise. Well, with all due respect to director wray, he has a hard time finding emails at his own fbi, let alone figuring out whether there is any kind of voter fraud. Perhaps he needs to get involved on the ground and he would change his testimony on capitol hill. Boom. Whoa. That is just weak cheese. Hes going to have to do better to avoid being thrown under the bus by President Trump. Thats what happens to chief of staff. President trump gets reelected, how long is that guy going to last . Christopher wray was appointed by the president and unlike most of the president s hires, wray is a person of integrity with a long and storied career and he was testifying under oath, which is certainly more than we can say for the president or that guy, mark meadows. He isnt some partisan to discuss with a flip answer that youve had to think about and maybe had kayleigh mcenana handle it. How come the law and order folks are attacking the heads of the fbi and defending ideas like not committing to a peaceful transfer of power. Is that law and order . It almost makes you think their definition of law and order might not jive with democratic values, might not be so much about law and order and not only are they attacking people, they themselves have appointed, they arent even listening to their own statistics on absentee ballots. Take a look at the first page of the heritage study on voter fraud posted to the white house website. Youll notice the symbol on the top left of the heritage foundation, conservative think tank. This is their evidence they point to and yet, when you go on the voter fraud database as we did and count up what is listed under the category of quote fraudulent use of absentee ballots, which we did, its about 192 cases since the year 2000. Total. About 192 cases total in the last 20 years in which hundreds of millions of votes have been cast. Out of or tens of millions of votes. I dont have the exact number. Lets say tens of millions of votes over the last 20 years or lets Pay Attention to a top relub cr republican election lawyer. The person these guys would normally go to and hire when they want to contest an election and guess what ginsburg said . He said the same thing in an opinion piece in the washington post. Republicans try to make their cases in courts must deal with the basic truth four decades of investigation produced on isolated incidents of election fraud. And ginsburg counts himself as a man who looked for that evidence for years, but it just doesnt exist. Which brings us back to the burden of proof and what exactly in the president s mind constitutes a free election. Struggle as they might to find an answer, the president himself gave up the whole game just last month. Which free and fair . Its easy. If he wins. The only way were going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. Remember that. Thats the only way were going to lose. So thats a free and Fair Election for this president , an election he wins. Here with their perspective is rick, a cnn election law analyst, author of election meltdown and also with us is a department of justice veteran and both republican, democratic administrations and former assistant u. S. Attorney. Even though this incident the department of justice were pointing to to make a big deal about turned out to be basically nothing is how the doj handled it in any way appropriate or how or similar to how they normally handle investigations . Absolutely not. It couldnt be more disturbing, anderson. What happened today is the latest example how the president of the United States is trying to turn the Justice Department into his personal petting zoo and the attorney general is acting as his baiter. Its grossly policy for prosecutors to make public statements about pending investigations. The comment on the evidence in those investigations particularly in a way thats favorable to a candidate for elective office, ie here the president of the United States and to do so in such close proximity to an election, those run directly counter to bedrock principle and policy of the department of justice. The Justice Department needs to act as a bull work against the types of abuses you detailed in your opening and instead, it is acting as a hand maiden to them. And rick, i mean, what does it tell you that President Trump and allies started pointing to this in pennsylvania with an assist from the Justice Department as evidence that voter fraud is real and by extension the legitimacy of the entire election is at risk . Were just at the beginning of this. Were taking minor administrative errors, this turns out to have been a contract employee who was a third day on the job made a screwup and the president tipped off by barr before the public knew about this investigation claiming it shows wide spread voter fraud. I think well hear this constantly. The idea will be that the election is rigged and were going to keep hearing this unless trump actually wins the election. It might be a basis for trump to say he didnt really lose the election or have a post election litigation to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. David, what is so ridiculous about them pointing to this incident is the mistake made with seven ballots and the way they went about it, if thats the best evidence they can point to, i mean, it again, argues against their very case. I mean, they had reams of evidence of wide spread organized voter fraud, they would certainly use it. They formed a commission on it because President Trump has been claiming voter fraud for years and they dont find it because its not there. As someone that works at the department of justice for democratic and republic administrations, is what were seeing from barr and his relationship with the president and rule of law and mail in voting, i mean, does it square with your understanding of how things are supposed to work . No, its directly counter to them and every administration, there is a memo that the attorney general abides by that sets out the terms in which the white house and the department of justice can communicate on pending criminal investigations, what happened yesterday is directly counter to that. This wasnt just a question of coordination between the white house and the department of justice. I dare say this is out right collusion between the white house and the department of justice. And the rollout, the public rollout of comments about a pending investigation expressly intended to benefit the president poll litically. Rick, we had tom freeman on the program last night that is legitimately worried about the president encouraging violence if he doesnt get his way on the election. Are you worried about whats going on . Are you worried about american democracy . I know that last night on the program, he said it was a sixalarm fire. I had a piece calling it a fivealarm fire. We might have a slight difference. Here is what i think. We face a small risk of a kas s to catastrophe. Will remake it through where one candidate has enough of a margin, it wont be plausible to contest the election. If the election is close and it comes to looking at ballots in pennsylvania and whether or not there were minor problems how the ballots were counted, i think we could be in for something worse than the 2000 bush versus gore because were more polarized and have rhetoric from the president and we have social media that the president and others are using to spread misinformation and disinformation. Lots of people believe no matter what the results actually are that the election is being stolen. It really kind of toxic brew that were facing as a country right now and only a large margin will save us from maybe not civil war but really difficult period in american history. David, the president has this thing about back in prior administrations that people around the world were laughing at us, laughing at america, laughing at the government. I dont know if i mean, i know some places people are laughing. There is also places where a lot of people are shaking their heads out of pity for us, but among our adversaries, they got to be loving this. A sitting president is demeaning all the hinchmen around him who are mouthpieces for him and sullying themselves in the process. I mean, its basically a gift to those who would wish the United States exactly this kind of division. Anderson, if we can have access to Vladimir Putins secret private wish list, the havoc hes seeing in the United States, some of which he has contributed to and the president of the United States who appears compromised in some manner by his activities in russia could not be more ecstatic about what hes seeing. This is what the russians hope for not just domestically within the United States but disorder in the international alliances, the president s efforts to discredit nato. All these things are key objectives of the russian government and other adversaries. Yeah, richard and david, thank you. Appreciate it. Important discussion. Just ahead, more on the president s push for a second term where polling suggestions its a close race and as the u. S. Passes 7 million cases of coronavirus,breaking news on the vaccine for an early result from a Clinical Trial when we continue. Business right now is anything but usual. But we can help make this new normal, feel a little more normal. So you have more ways of selling, and safer ways of getting paid. We have tools to help you reconnect with customers, and give your bottom line a boost. You can keep your cash flow moving, and get money to move your business forward, too. So while we cant predict the future, we can help you be ready for whatevers next. See everything we can do at square. Com its time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. Powerful relief so you can restore and recover. Theraflu hot beats cold. My wife and daughter had been killed in an automobile crash, and lying in the bed were my two little boys. 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Help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. Parodontax. President trump was again today in florida where the polls are close and that the president needs in his win column if he secures a second term. He spoke to a friendly crowd of floridas latino population pushing his record, even some of the more controversial parts of the record. The people that understand the border better than anybody are the hishispanics. Ive had more support because they dont want bad people coming into the country. They dont want people coming into the country that will take their jobs and they understand it better. I thought it would be the opposite in a way. Just to show how tightly contested the florida race is and an initiative by Michael Bloomberg to help those with felony convictions in the state is attracting negative attention from republican officials in the state. More on that contest from 360s randi kaye. Reporter in a statement where razor thin election margins are a regular occurrence, every florida vote counts. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg pouring big money into the Sunshine State to help former Vice President joe biden win. His latest move, more than 16 million raised to pay off debts owed by ex felons. In 2018, florida voters approved an amendment restoring Voting Rights to more than 1 Million People with felony convictions. Republicans in the state then passed legislation blocking felons from voting unless they paid all fines and court fees. A few years ago, rosemary was convicted of illegally occupying a property. She hopes bloomberg can help. I applaud him and thank him and pray other people join in. Reporter the money bloomberg raised will go toward helping more than 30,000 black and latino former felons in florida cast their ballot. Sustain florida is the purple state with a huge 29 Electoral College votes.