Election Denial

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Necessary Conversation

Episode: Election Denial
Date: July 22, 2026
Host: Chad
Guest: Mary Lou (Chad's mom)
Theme: Family therapy through politics—debating election denial, voter fraud, and political misinformation

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Main Theme and Purpose

This episode focuses on the ongoing debate within American families about election integrity, voter fraud claims, and the broader implications of these narratives, using recent political developments as a springboard. Chad and his mother, Mary Lou, dive into voter ID laws, Trump’s continued claims about the 2020 election, controversial figures like Ken Paxton, and the influence of partisan outlets and commentators. The discussion lays bare generational and ideological divides, showing how political misinformation persists even amid contrary evidence.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Opening and Tangents: Bieber and Halftime Shows

• [01:08] Mary Lou expresses her admiration for Justin Bieber after his halftime show and laments the criticism he received.
  • Memorable moment: “I love the Biebs… I wish someday I would go see him in person if I ever had a chance. He’s kind of up there with Michael Jackson to me.” – Mary Lou [01:13]

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2. Voter Fraud Claims and Conservative Talking Points

• Mary Lou presents a right-wing clip alleging 250,000 noncitizens and 400,000 deceased individuals are registered to vote in four states. The clip pushes for strict voter ID laws (the "SAVE America Act"), contends Democrats obstruct Trump, and paints broad strokes about the Democratic base.
  • Quote: “You need to be a citizen in order to register to vote and you need to show ID when you go vote. Nothing about that should be controversial.” – Conservative Commentator [04:25]
• Chad fact-checks the claims in real time, highlighting the lack of reliable sources, speculative figures, and absence of evidence for mass fraud.
  • Quote: “Let’s say that there are… 400,000 dead people registered to vote and they can’t vote. They’re dead.” – Chad [06:54]

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3. The Reality of Voter Rolls and Dead Voters

• Chad explains the administrative reasons for deceased voters remaining on rolls and the logistical impossibility of organized mass fraud using their identities.
  • Role-play segment [25:04 – 26:30]: Chad and Mary Lou play out a polling scenario to illustrate how hard it’d be for someone to impersonate another voter.
  • Quote: “The very idea… that there are a bunch of people doing voter fraud is sellable to the MAGA audience. Once you start really thinking about how does that work, how would people go in with fake names… it can’t work.” – Chad [26:17]

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4. Trump’s Election Lies and Internal Contradictions

• Chad plays a clip of a Trump election official bluntly asserting there’s no evidence of foreign interference or votes being flipped in 2020.
  • Quote: “The Intelligence Community has zero evidence that a foreign power flipped the vote in 2022 or 24.” – White House Official [15:20]
• Chad points out the dissonance between what Trump says publicly and what his own team (and declassified documents) state privately.
  • Quote: “The only person saying that somebody interfered in our election is Trump. And then all of his little cronies say it down the line.” – Chad [19:13]

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5. The Push for Voter ID: Fact vs. Fiction

• Proponents of the SAVE Act (voter ID law) use exaggerated analogies (“You gotta show picture ID to eat at Olive Garden”)—which Chad debunks as misinformation.
  • Quote: “You don’t have to show your ID at Olive Garden. They’re baking lies into the narrative they’re trying to spin you here.” – Chad [23:02]
• Mary Lou maintains a belief that IDs are necessary and that people are voting fraudulently, despite Chad’s pushback.

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6. Ken Paxton Segment: The Irony of Election Fraud Claims

• [28:30 – 31:40] Chad shares a story about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a loud voice on voter fraud who himself voted illegally from an old address in six elections.
  • Quote: “We have evidence of only one Texan voting illegally in the last six elections. And that person is Ken Paxton. Yep, the same Ken Paxton.” – Narrator/Reporter [29:44]
  • Quote: “He has made false claims about non citizens voting illegally. He even created an illegal voting tip line… But here’s the thing…” – Narrator/Reporter [28:41]
• Discussion about partisan hypocrisy: Chad argues this demonstrates Republicans’ lack of real concern for election integrity—they desire control, not fairness.
  • Quote: “They do not care about election integrity. They just want to be able to decide whose vote counts.” – Narrator/Reporter [30:48]

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7. Election Control and Authoritarian Playbook

• *Chad highlights Trump’s long-term narrative-building to undermine faith in elections, using crisis and invented fraud to justify more control.
  • Quote: “Why is Trump doing all this shit about reforming our elections and trying to convince people that there is no election integrity? It’s so he can come in, take control… and tell you who won.” – Chad [17:30]
• Mary Lou remains skeptical that such widespread manipulation is possible, suggesting it “could be the plan both ways.” [33:33]

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8. Personal Beliefs vs. Evidence

• End of Episode: Despite evidence and discussion, Mary Lou remains non-committal or unconvinced that claims of mass interference and voter fraud are fictitious, illustrating the difficulty of changing entrenched beliefs.
  • Quote: “Do you still think China interfered in the 2020 election?” – Chad [40:33]
  • Quote: “I’m 50/50 on it, but I do believe that they have a lot of our information.” – Mary Lou [40:53]
  • Quote: “I showed you a clip… saying they didn’t.” – Chad [41:09]
  • Quote: “I know. I still do. I think in some way.” – Mary Lou [41:13]

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9. Notable Closing Segments & Timestamps

• [36:11] – Update: Mitch McConnell’s health and rumors about his (non-)public appearances.
• [39:48] – Brief tangent: The mysterious death of Nolan Wells—calls for truth and transparency.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “My name is Julie Pretzel Head.” – Mary Lou, during the voter fraud role-play [25:32]
• “I have just illustrated to you how virtually impossible that would be.” – Chad, on impersonating voters [28:00]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:57] – Voter fraud clip presented by Mary Lou
• [06:26] – Chad debunks voter rolls/dead voters myth
• [14:55] – Trump official’s admission: no foreign interference
• [21:10] – Save America Act and Olive Garden ID analogy
• [28:30] – Ken Paxton segment
• [36:11] – Mitch McConnell health rumors
• [39:48] – Wells case tangent
• [40:33] – Wrap up: Where do beliefs stand now?

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Tone and Style

• Conversational, brisk, and confrontational—Chad persistently challenges misinformation; Mary Lou holds her ground but demonstrates occasional openness to new information.
• Frequent family humor and exasperation (“Julie Pretzel Head,” Olive Garden debates), all woven through every policy dispute.

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Summary Takeaway

The episode is a microcosm of America’s broader struggle with political disinformation, polarization, and the limits of fact-checking within close relationships. Chad attempts to ground the discussion in official reports, direct logic, and even playful role-play, but Mary Lou’s skepticism illustrates how narratives of fraud and denial remain stubbornly persistent. The conversation closes not with consensus, but with affectionate disagreement—political family therapy as advertised.

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Transcript

[Chad]

Welcome to the Necessary Conversation midweek edition. It's me, Chad, and my mom, Mary Lou. Best American flag hat. It's just us today. Nice.

[Mary Lou]

Yes, it's me.

[Chad]

Now, last week on Sunday, we talked about Trump's big speech that he gave Thursday where he basically said China tried to steal the 2020 election, that they interfered. He talked about Venezuela interfering with. I told you on that show that the documents he released trying to prove that were actually contradictory to what he was saying. The documents, he really said Beijing had nothing to do with it. You didn't believe that, though. So I have brought some clips today that will hopefully inform you a little bit more about the fact that he is lying about election interference. You have given me some clips, one of which is also about the election, but you also have some clips about the contaminated lettuce that's making everybody shit their pants. And I don't know what these other two are. Where do you want to begin?

[Mary Lou]

It doesn't matter. I did want to say this to start. I wanted to say this. I don't know why everybody is given the Biebs. I love Justin Bieber. And there's some people giving him trouble because at the halftime show, he decided to do an acoustic guitar, which was just beautiful. You know, it was kind of godly and it had Hallelujah. It was called Hallelujah everything. Hallelujah. I loved it. You know, it wasn't the typical, like what the other performers were doing with a lot of noise and dancers and all that behind them. I absolutely loved it. And there are people giving him static. I don't know if they're doing it because it was about God and Hallelujah. I love the babes. I wish someday I would go see him in person if I ever had a chance. He's kind of up there with Michael Jackson. To me, I like him. And I think, you know, as a kid, As a kid singer, and he just started on YouTube, was singing songs, and then from there, you know, a lot of discussion what happened with the Diddy and all that. And that's very sad, too. I like the Biebs. Yeah.

[Chad]

Okay. I don't know. I. I have no response to this. I'm glad you like Justin Bieber. I don't know any of the controversies currently surrounding it.

[Mary Lou]

You see it. He did it on an acute acoustic guitar. It was real, like a quiet version, and it was just beautiful. I loved it.

[Chad]

All right, let's start today's show. After that, Justin Bieber Love fest with this clip that you have Sent me. I believe this is about the election and this is from your perspective. Here we go.

[Mary Lou]

Okay.

[John Solomon]

250,000 non citizens registered to vote in just four states, mind you, we have 46 other states and just four states. We've identified 250,000 non citizens registered to vote in California and Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. We also worked with proactive states to identify 28,000 non citizens on their voter rolls, plus 400,000 individuals that are still registered to vote that are deceased.

[Conservative Commentator]

So he just said There are over 250,000 non citizens who are registered to vote in this country. And on top of that, he said there are still or there are 400,000 people who are now dead who are still registered to vote. That should be acceptable to nobody, essentially. But many people will downplay this or just call them liars with no proof that they're lying. And what's crazy to me is so many people want to fight against the Save America act when it's really shouldn't be that difficult. You need to be a citizen in order to register to vote and you need to show ID when you go vote. Nothing about that should be controversial. But Democrats have a habit of making uncontroversial things controversial. I saw a post and I don't know if this is true. I was young, I wasn't paying attention at the time. But they were like, we had so much peace when Obama was president, it made me think. Because what Democrats do is Democrats work to actively obstruct Donald Trump. So they work to obstruct Donald Trump, cause issues, cause problems, and then say. And then they point at Trump and say, look under him. There's no peace, there's no nothing. You can't do anything good under Trump. Life is terrible under Trump. When they tried to make life terrible under Trump, so they can then tell you life is terrible under Trump, they want to create the negative situation that they can then use against Donald Trump. Rather than just seeing if Trump and Republicans governance ends up being good or bad, they want to inject themselves in it to try to make it bad so they can have a talking point to run on in the future. I would argue they care more about winning than they actually do about protecting the American people. And it's kind of obvious if you pay attention because they're. The vast majority of their base is anti Trump Democrat base right now, if you look at it, is opposed Trump push socialism and free gossip and hate Israel. It's really what you see when you look at the modern Democratic Party today. Oh, and support unfettered illegal immigration and abolish ice. Forgot about that. Oh, and tax the billionaires. I guess I forgot about that, too. Economically illiterate in most cases. There's no real substance. They. They have destructive policies, beliefs, and ideologies. Again, it should not be controversial to want to ensure that only Americans are able to register to vote and that people with photo IDs that match who they are are the only ones allowed to vote. Nothing about that is crazy. But anyway, that's all I've got for now. Don't forget, free email newsletter. The link to that is in my profile.

[White House Official]

Okay.

[Chad]

This dude has some. Some things wrong for sure when he's saying they want to obstruct Trump and they don't want to see how his governing works and blah, blah, blah. It's like we're seeing how it works. The price of everything is sky high. He has started a war without congressional approval. That is a disaster. None of that has anything to do with Democrats trying to undermine Trump to make shit worse so that it looks bad. That's all him.

[Mary Lou]

I agree with everything he said. But the first part of the clip is the clip that I wanted you to see.

[Chad]

I'm about to Google that right now. 250,000 undocumented immigrants registered to vote. Fact check. Let's see.

[Mary Lou]

And also, I've always said that, and I've said the dead people, too, have been voting.

[Chad]

No, but. So let's say that there are. I think they said 400,000 dead people registered to vote and they can't vote. They're dead.

[Mary Lou]

Well, yeah, but they. Their names voted, and that does make a difference, maybe.

[Chad]

No, no. Registered to vote doesn't mean you voted. How many people do you think are registered to vote that just don't vote? That are living? Plenty of people.

[Mary Lou]

Yeah. Yeah, probably plenty. Right?

[Chad]

So 400,000 dead people, if that's even accurate, is meaningless.

[Mary Lou]

All I wanted to say about that clip is our. The way that we vote has to change. It's ridiculous. It is ridiculous. I think I just glitched there out on you. I. What I wanted to say about that

[Chad]

clip is you are glitching very bad.

[Mary Lou]

The way that we vote has to change. It has to change. We need a name, we need a photo id and we need to prove who we are. Are we back now?

[Chad]

It's your Internet. That room is very bad. Yes.

[Mary Lou]

Okay. We need a photo id. We need. When we vote, our voting has to change.

[Chad]

Why?

[Mary Lou]

We need a photo id. Who we are.

[Chad]

Why do you want it to change. Trump won the last election. Why do you want it to change?

[Mary Lou]

It needs to be better. I think it needs to be better all around in every state, for even state level voting. Why? Because I do think it's corrupt. I do think there is corruption in our voting system.

[Chad]

But the outcome you wanted to happen in the last election, Trump winning happened. So how corrupt can it be unless it's corrupt in his favor.

[Mary Lou]

I think it's corrupt both ways sometimes.

[Chad]

Okay.

[Mary Lou]

I don't. I don't like our voting system the way it is. I really don't. There's too many ifs and too many ways it can go right. Too many ways it can go wrong. A lot of wrong.

[Chad]

All of these past elections.

[Conservative Commentator]

What's that?

[White House Official]

Uhhuh.

[Mary Lou]

Finding ballots in trash cans, you know, dead people able to register to vote.

[Chad]

Dead people cannot register to vote. There are some people who die in between registering to vote and the next election coming up. That does happen. Those people then don't vote because they are corpses.

[Mary Lou]

I don't think that's what he was trying to say. I was trying. I think he was trying to say that people that had already passed on had votes with their names.

[Chad]

Well, this is, this is the information I have for you about the 250,000 number that he brings up. Homeland Security says California has 190,000 people registered to vote that are not citizens. New Jersey has 35, Nevada, 15, Pennsylvania, 14. Each state's number represents less than 1% of the state's registered voters. Neither Mullins remarks nor a department press release explain how that figure was collected. A response to this is on PolitiFact. PolitiFact's inquiry did not provide any additional details. There's plenty of stuff, basically, that they're saying. It's not clear how they're arriving at this number and people are very skeptical of it. They are speculative. The numbers are wildly speculative at best. And Department of Homeland Security hasn't shared anything that backs it up. So they're basically just making this number up. He's going out there and saying it propaganda style, as you yourself have admitted on this very show.

[Mary Lou]

That's what the man said. You would say that it's a lie when it's not.

[Chad]

You yourself say all these people lie all the time.

[Mary Lou]

I follow that guy. I like what he says.

[Chad]

I understand, but that guy's not right.

[Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear]

Even.

[Chad]

That's why I went to the second half of what he was saying first, where he's like, Democrats are trying to obstruct Trump and they try to make things bad. And then they say Trump made him bad. And it's like, did Democrats put tariffs on every fucking country in the world?

[Mary Lou]

No.

[Chad]

Okay. That was Trump.

[Mary Lou]

Right, Right.

[Chad]

That starts the escalation of all of our goods and services. Did Democrats start a war with Iran?

[Mary Lou]

No.

[John Solomon]

Well, well, well, what?

[Chad]

He started it without Congress. There was no Democrat that even got to say yes or no to that. There was no congressional approval of that. He just did it. That was all him.

[Mary Lou]

Now, previous president just gave him a buttload of money and said, here, I just want to show that clear. Just because. Forget about the second part that he was saying. That's got you.

[Chad]

Yeah, yeah, forget about that part. Okay, sure.

[Mary Lou]

You riled up. The first part is about the voting process and how we do it. And, you know, it has to get better both ways.

[Chad]

Okay, but the things that Trump. All right, look, I have. Let's just move on. And I'm sure we're going to be talking about this because I have a bunch of clips about the election as well here. But I just want to say. You're saying you want the election to be better. For whatever reason, you believe that there are people that are not U.S. citizens voting. You believe somehow dead people are voting, which obviously can't be the case. If you are deceased, you cannot vote. You would agree to that.

[Mary Lou]

But your name could be used by who? As another person voted.

[Chad]

By who?

[Mary Lou]

As another person voting.

[Chad]

Okay, so let's go. Hang on. Let's go down this path. Let's say there are 400,000 people nationwide that are dead and still on the voter rolls registered to vote. Who do you think is looking up all of those people and then conscripting 400,000 other people to go to polls using that person's name, then also go to polls using their own name? Because that's how that would have to work. To get the benefit of using the dead people's names, you would have to vote yourself and then vote with a dead person's name as well. So who's doing that? Who's organizing it?

[Mary Lou]

Democrats.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Okay. Who?

[Chad]

Which ones?

[Mary Lou]

Somebody. George Soros, somebody big like that.

[Conservative Commentator]

Okay.

[Chad]

And you don't think Republicans are doing this. Do you think they see the dead people's names and say, oh, we could capitalize on this.

[Mary Lou]

It could be both ways. I said that. I'm trying to say our elections are not good the way they are right now. And it's got a. Somebody's got to figure something out better.

[Chad]

But when I asked you who's organizing this you said Democrats.

[Mary Lou]

That's what I think.

[John Solomon]

Right.

[Chad]

I'm just trying to get you to see that it's. The premise itself is absurd. And then when you really start looking at the nuts and bolts of like, okay, how does this work? How do they actually use dead people to get extra votes? You think it's all Democrats doing it. Why wouldn't the Republicans do it? Then you're like, no, it's both sides. Okay, well, so what is it? How does this work in your mind?

[Mary Lou]

It's using. It's using names that are not alive to vote or not United States citizens to vote or. There you go.

[Chad]

Okay, let's play my first clip here. This is the clip that we spoke about on Sunday, but you were unaware of it. This is a guy who is one of Trump's election officials. Immediately after he gave that speech, he is asked a question by a reporter about China's interference in the election. Here we go.

[Trump Election Official]

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he won the 2020 election. And that is why this response from a current White House official who helps him prepare for this declassification of election material for the primetime election speech. Well, his response to me was surprising when I asked him whether there was intelligence that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election, and he responded, quote, not yet. You acknowledged that there were no votes changed in 2020.

[White House Official]

I. All I can acknowledge is what the intelligence shows. Right. I only know the Intelligence Committee has zero evidence that someone has flipped that a foreign power flip. They vote in 2,022 or 24.

[Trump Election Official]

And you have no.

[Chad]

You're able to acknowledge all the documents.

[Trump Election Official]

You're able to acknowledge that Venezuela has not tampered with voting machines in the United States.

[White House Official]

No, the intelligence is very clear. They did it on their own machines. Why is it important that they did it on their machines? Their machine protocols are the same as America. Why? Because for a long time, they did.

[John Solomon]

Exactly.

[Trump Election Official]

The 2020 election was, in fact, the results as we, the American public.

[White House Official]

I'm still researching. So let me, Let me. This is the first.

[Trump Election Official]

But there's no intelligence.

[White House Official]

Now, you have.

[Trump Election Official]

There is no intelligence that the election would have said that Donald Trump was. Again, John Solomon was one of the brains brought in by Trump into the White House just last month to try to help prove that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And that is why this admission by Solomon, it's so very revealing.

[Chad]

Okay, so there you go. That was the night that Trump gave the speech. That's one of his big election officials says there is no evidence that any foreign government had anything to do with the 2020 election.

[Mary Lou]

So that's like a double negative. Like, that doesn't even make sense.

[Chad]

A double negative.

[Mary Lou]

I mean, Trump is saying. Trump's saying yes, he's saying no. So, yes. No. I mean, yeah, Trump's lying. Yeah. And that guy wouldn't even stay there to answer stuff.

[Trump Election Official]

Right.

[Chad]

Because he knew he was going to get his ass chewed out by Trump.

[Mary Lou]

Right.

[Chad]

But he's telling the truth there. He's saying, we went through all the data, we went through all the documents. There's no evidence that any foreign country had anything to do with the 2020 election. Trump's entire speech was saying the opposite. But then when Trump releases those documents, the documents say that nobody interfered. This guy is saying, nobody interfered. Trump is lying.

[Mary Lou]

Or will that guy be fired?

[Chad]

Of course he'll be fired.

[Conservative Commentator]

He's.

[Chad]

But Trump is lying.

[Mary Lou]

Right?

[Chad]

You can see that, right?

[Mary Lou]

Yeah, I see what you're saying.

[Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear]

Yes.

[Chad]

And so then the next step up from this is why. Why is Trump doing all this shit about reforming our elections and trying to convince people that there is no election integrity? It's so he can come in, take control of all the. The elections, and tell you who won, so he can determine that I never don't matter anymore.

[Mary Lou]

Right.

[Chad]

That's how they do it in countries like Russia, where they have elections in Russia, but Putin WINS by like 95% everywhere in the entire country every time because they control it. And he comes out and just says, I won again. That's what Trump is trying to do.

[Mary Lou]

And the same. Like in. Wasn't in Venezuela the same thing. Yeah.

[Conservative Commentator]

Right.

[Chad]

So now you've got the documents that Trump himself released, and this guy, who's one of his top election officials, all of them are saying, no interference in 2020. All of them are saying, trump lied to you on Thursday night.

[Mary Lou]

And he even put it on the White House page. Because I read it on there.

[Chad]

Yes, correct.

[Mary Lou]

I did read it.

[Chad]

So what do you think about that?

[Mary Lou]

Well, somebody's not telling the truth.

[Chad]

It's Trump. Do you think this guy's lying?

[Mary Lou]

I don't know. He didn't stay there long enough.

[Chad]

Okay, well, the documents, though, that Trump released, it's not just this guy. It's the documents that Trump released. The ones that are on whitehouse.gov also say this. And those documents are compiled by the intelligence community. So the intelligence we have says, nobody interfered in the 2020 election. This guy says it. The only person saying that we. Somebody interfered in our Election is Trump. And then all of his little cronies say it down the line.

[Mary Lou]

Right.

[Chad]

He's trying to weave a narrative to make you think, which you already do. You've already told me in this podcast that our elections are not secure, that they must be changed. He will then come in with the SAVE act or whatever else he wants to do to change them, to make them, in quotes, better. And that will give him.

[Mary Lou]

I'm not the only one that feels that way, though. A lot of people feel that way. That our elections need to be more accountable.

[Advocate for SAVE Act]

Yes.

[Chad]

Because he's been promoting that idea since he came into politics. Remember in 2016, they asked him, will you accept the results of the election? And he was like, no, not unless I win. So that right there should tell you he has been trying to undermine election integrity from the very beginning. It's a big part of his entire campaign every year. It's a big part of what he's been trying to do since the very beginning. And now he's doing it in this kind of bigger capacity where he's just putting out lies. He's going on national television to lie straight to your face about it. He's trying to pass all these new laws that are going to give him more control over elections. He had the FBI seize election ballots from the 2020 election in Georgia.

[Mary Lou]

Georgia.

[John Solomon]

Why?

[Mary Lou]

I do remember that. I really wondered that night. I was waiting that night to see what he. I thought he was going to talk about the war. I didn't think he would talk about that. The war is very much more important than that right now.

[Chad]

Well, here's another guy talking about it. I threw this clip in because I found it funny, but it does have a kind of bigger point than I want to get to. But let's check this out. Here we go.

[Advocate for SAVE Act]

These are basic functions of government, basic responsibilities of reforming government. Bringing the Save America act again, what is the Save America Act? Show in picture ID to vote. Not a complicated subject. Again, anybody that gets on an airplane has to show a picture ID to vote. Nowadays, if you want to go to Olive Garden and get unlimited pasta, you got to show a picture id. This isn't complicated stuff.

[Mary Lou]

I like it. I like it.

[Chad]

They didn't show up. Mike Johnson is standing right behind him and he's like, nodding like, yep, you gotta show a picture ID to eat an Olive Garden.

[Mary Lou]

So that is the truth. So if you have to do that, why not show that to vote?

[Chad]

Mom, that's not the truth.

[Mary Lou]

Than getting your pasta at the Olive

[Chad]

Garden right That's not the truth. You don't have to show an ID to buy pasta at Olive Garden.

[Mary Lou]

You might have to if you're using an app to get it or something.

[Chad]

Mom.

[Mary Lou]

Or I even heard that you had to show your ID to get into Taylor. Taylor Swift's wedding. That's what I heard. So you know things like that, that you have to show IDs too.

[Chad]

You don't. Have you ever eaten at Olive Garden? And I know the answer is yes because we have done it together many times.

[Mary Lou]

Yes.

[Chad]

Have you ever had to show your ID in Olive Garden to buy anything?

[Mary Lou]

Would it be liquor, maybe? If it prove you were old enough to drink, sure.

[Chad]

No, but I'm talking about to buy unlimited pasta and breadsticks or whatever. Have you ever had to show your id? Have you ever said, I'll have the pasta and breadsticks, and they're like, can I see your id?

[Mary Lou]

No. No. So that was funny, but yeah, yes,

[Chad]

it was funny, but I was trying

[Mary Lou]

to make a point. Correct, but the point is wrong. You do have to show. You have to show your id. I bought Corusine the other day in Walmart and I just show my ID for that.

[Chad]

Yeah.

[Mary Lou]

So buying medication, you have to show id. Why wouldn't you have to show an ID for to vote?

[John Solomon]

But you're.

[Chad]

You're missing the bigger point here. They're trying to ram this thing home, show your ID to vote, which is just another thing that makes it slightly more prohibitive to vote. All they're trying to do is get voter numbers down because that helps Republicans.

[Mary Lou]

You don't think you should have to prove who you are to vote? Chad, come on.

[Chad]

I mean, no.

[Mary Lou]

Oh, my gosh. Now, are you crazy, Tam, today or what?

[Chad]

The idea that you have some. Some strange idea, and I guess maybe it's taking hold in the Republican Party, and this ID thing is part of it, where he's like, you've got to show your ID to do something as innocuous as buying unlimited breadsticks at Olive Garden. They're trying to, like, ram down your throat this idea that you must show id. You must show id, that we do it for far lesser things here. He's clearly lying.

[Conservative Commentator]

You.

[Chad]

You don't have to show your idea at Olive Garden. So they're. They're baking lies into the narrative that they're trying to spin you here. The idea, though, that there are armies of people just, like, getting back in line using different names. Like, when you go up to vote, for example, do you go in person or do you do mail in?

[Mary Lou]

Last time we voted in the big election, we went in person.

[Chad]

Okay. So when you go there, you have to walk up to a table, generally speaking, and there are the volunteers who are running the elections. You tell them your name, they look it up. Right. In a voter roll.

[Mary Lou]

Right.

[Chad]

And they say, here's your ballot.

[Mary Lou]

Because we're registered voters.

[Chad]

Correct. So only people who register voters are in that. Those ballots.

[Mary Lou]

Right, Right.

[Chad]

So let's say you want to use somebody else's name and you don't have to use an id. Let's do a role play. I'm the person running the. I have the voter roll. You have to, in many cases, go up. It's sectioned off into the first letter of your last name or whatever. In many cases. So let's say that I'm running one of the voter tables, and you want to use a fake name, a name that is not yours. Let's do it. Go ahead.

[Mary Lou]

My name is Julie Pretzel Head.

[Chad]

I don't have a Julie Pretzel Head in this voter roll.

[Mary Lou]

It must be there. I voted before.

[Chad]

I'm sorry, it's not here. Are you sure you. You're in the right zip code? Maybe it's at a different polling place.

[Mary Lou]

This is my polling place. I would like to vote today.

[Chad]

Well, I'm sorry, your name's not in the voter roll. I can't give you a ballot.

[Mary Lou]

Here's my id.

[Chad]

This ID says Mary Lou Coltrane.

[Mary Lou]

No, it would be Pretzel Head or whatever.

[Chad]

I told you so. You would have a whole fake idea of Julie. You see what I'm getting at here? The very idea, like an abstract idea that there are a bunch of people doing voter fraud that is sellable to the MAGA audience. Once you start really thinking about how does that work, how would people go in with fake names and it can't work.

[Mary Lou]

Everyone has an id. Everyone has a driver's.

[Chad]

I understand, but you don't need it to vote.

[Mary Lou]

Or. Or a photo ID of a bank card or something.

[Chad]

But, mom, you don't need it to vote. I've just illustrated that to you. How would you go in with a fake name? You would have to know the fake name.

[Mary Lou]

Yes, you would. Yeah.

[Chad]

And what if that person's already voted that morning or whatever, you know?

[Mary Lou]

I don't know, but I saw one time on Instagram, a man was boasting that he voted five times with his same name.

[Chad]

Okay, how about that? How about it? So four extra votes. If that's Even real cares.

[Trump Election Official]

The.

[Chad]

The amount of voter fraud that exists is. It does not matter. It's inconsequential to all elections. This has been proven time and time again. There have been multiple investigations on both sides of the aisle into the. The 2020 election, by the way. They have all found no interference. Voter fraud played no role there. These ideas that they are promoting to you are designed to make you okay with him doing drastic changes to the elect electoral process so that he can control it. He's getting you to think everything's up in the election.

[Mary Lou]

I just want everybody to have an identification with their name on it that that's the person.

[Chad]

Why?

[Mary Lou]

Because I think there are people that are voting in other people's names or dead people's names. They're not the person they're saying they are.

[Chad]

I have just illustrated to you how virtually impossible that would be.

[Mary Lou]

I'll try it next time. We'll see.

[Chad]

You're gonna go to jail for voter fraud now. Please don't do voter fraud.

[White House Official]

Okay,

[Chad]

Speaking of voter fraud, I. Let me. Yeah, let me play this clip. Speaking of voter fraud, let me play this clip. Are you ready?

[Mary Lou]

Yep.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Hey everybody. I want to share a really incredible story about Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for Senate in Texas. Paxton has been through a lot of scandals. In 2015, he was criminally charged with securities fraud. In 2023, he was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives and suspended from office. He has been accused of bribery, corruption and obstruction of justice. His wife filed for divorce on grounds of adultery. And over the fourth of July weekend, Paxton was spotted in London with his girlfriend. But somehow Paxton's political career has endured. He is currently the Attorney General of Texas and he is also run for a U.S. senate seat. Donald Trump endorsed him, which helped him to defeat the Republican incumbent John Cornyn in the primary. Paxton has used his office to spread lies about election fraud. In 2020, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state of Texas trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He claimed that the election was stolen from Donald Trump through voter fraud. He has made false claims about non citizens voting illegally. He even created an illegal voting tip line as part of an eff crack down on voter fraud. Paxton said that he will, quote, stop at nothing to uncover and stop any illegal voting activity. But here's the thing. We have evidence of only one Texan voting illegally in the last six elections. And that person is Ken Paxton. Yep, the same Ken Paxton. ProPublica did an amazing investigation that shows that Paxton is registered to vote at an address where he doesn't actually live. He hasn't lived there for two years, but he has voted in six different elections, including the one in which he defeated John Cornyn from that address where he does not live. Paxton's office actually warned Texas voters right before the primaries that it is illegal to misrepresent your residents on election records. That's a quote. Voter fraud is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison under Texas law, and Paxton is Texas's chief law enforcement officer. The main point of this story is that the election fraud narrative we keep hearing from people like Paxton and Trump is a total fiction. They do not care about election integrity. They just want to be able to decide whose vote counts. If Ken Paxton were serious about election integrity, he would start by cleaning up his own house.

[Chad]

So what do you think of that?

[Mary Lou]

Very interesting. I had heard some of that. I didn't read a lot about it. I was wondering what Haley was thinking about that since that's her state. I was all, yeah, I don't know a lot about that, but none of that sounds good. And there was also a mayor running in Carrollton. I was going to ask Haley about that. Who he had also been up for charges on something and now is running again.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I don't know.

[Mary Lou]

Yeah, I was gonna ask about that

[Chad]

one, too, but this is Ken Paxton.

[Mary Lou]

I know a bigger. Yeah.

[Chad]

Committing voter fraud.

[Mary Lou]

Right.

[Chad]

Do you care about that?

[Mary Lou]

Yeah. That's illegal.

[Chad]

Okay. So he should be put in jail, probably.

[Mary Lou]

Or not be able to run for sure.

[Conservative Commentator]

Okay.

[Mary Lou]

But Donald Trump endorsed him.

[Chad]

Yeah. And he's the AG of Texas, so he's not going to bring charges against himself, obviously. So you can see how corrupt it is, and you can see that these people don't actually care about election integrity. He himself is committing voter fraud.

[Mary Lou]

Why aren't there Democrats standing up to this, saying, you can't do this?

[Chad]

Because Democrats are terrible. They're bad at politics. They never win.

[John Solomon]

They.

[Chad]

They don't ever try to stop this stuff. They'll talk about it on CNN and msnbc, but it's like. And it just keeps happening. I'm just trying to use this to illustrate to you the idea that was Liz Oyer, that was the former pardon attorney, I believe, under Biden. She basically is, like, laying out that Republicans don't really care about this issue other than they want to be able to control the elections. They want to be able to control who actually gets to vote, what voter. Like the idea that they're saying there Are all these undocumented illegal immigrants here voting under blah, blah, blah? They're using that idea so that they can take control of the voter rolls, just like Trump did in Georgia, where he sent the FBI to collect the ballots. They're going to try to do that again. Then they're just going to throw out a bunch of Democrat ballots saying these votes were cast by undocumented immigrants, these votes were cast by dead people, and they're just going to get rid of them, handing the election to the Republicans. That's the plan here.

[Mary Lou]

I think that could be the plan. Both ways. It could be both ways.

[Chad]

Trump is controlling this, though. It's not both ways. Trump is. Trump's getting rid of all these people who oversee election integrity. He's trying to take control of state elections. Now, if he does that, it's. There's no both ways. Trump gets all the ballots. Trump then gets to decide how many Democratic ballots do we carve off so that we win every state, every district, every everything. And all they have to say is these. We found these votes were illegally cast. 15,000 of them in this district. Throw them in the trash. Oh, Republicans win. That's the plan.

[Mary Lou]

It cannot be that bad. That cannot be the plan. It cannot be that bad. And if we all have an id, it would help.

[Chad]

How does the ID help with that specifically?

[Mary Lou]

It shows who you are, and that's your one vote, and nobody else can take that vote away from you.

[Chad]

But we already. The little role play we did is meaningless to you. You can't go to a polling place and just make up a name. It has to be a person that's in the voter roll for that district.

[Mary Lou]

And if you. If they pass the SAVE act, where it has to match, then your name and id, then that person votes.

[Chad]

You know, when I go to my polling place, they also ask my address. So you would have to know at least where I'm going. A person's name and their address if you wanted to steal their vote. So what was it? Susie Pretzel Head. Where do you live? Susie Pretzel Head.

[Mary Lou]

Judy. I think my name was.

[Chad]

I'm just saying, like the. In order to go in and steal someone's vote, using their name, their address. No one's doing that. Yeah, because also, listen, it's also such a low reward for the effort of it. So how many times are you going to do that in a day?

[Mary Lou]

Depends on how. How many times they pay me, like $20 to go do it. I guess people are probably being paid to go do that.

[Chad]

By who?

[Mary Lou]

Whoever wants that vote. Whoever wants the vote.

[Chad]

All right, I have one more clip that is not related to the election. This is about Mitch McConnell. I know you think he's still alive. Here we go.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Governor Andy Beshear, still waiting. The Kentucky governor said Thursday he still has not heard from Mitch McConnell since the 84 year old Senator was taken to the hospital more than a month ago. Take a listen.

[Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear]

I have not heard one thing from Mitch McConnell or his office. And everyone deserves a level of privacy on their health. But when you take on these jobs, you represent the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, you give up some of that. That's just what it is. That's what comes with the territory.

[Chad]

He also said in that little speech he should make a video or something just letting us know that he's alive. So far the only proof of life we've got is a picture that seems very much like it's AI and two people saying they had phone calls with him for roughly 20 minutes. This was like a week or two ago. He's not here. And there's reports coming out now that he's brain dead, that they're just keeping his body alive until August 3rd, which is 10, 11 days away from now. So do you think he is still alive?

[Mary Lou]

I do. Because when Lindsey Graham died, they told us the next day. Why wouldn't they tell us when he died?

[Chad]

Lindsey Graham, I think was a harder one to cover up because it was so sudden and abrupt. Mitch McConnell has been, you know, slowly inching toward the grave here for the past year, roughly. You, I mean, you, I'm sure you remember all the things of him standing at the podiums and just like glitching

[White House Official]

out

[Chad]

and, and so then he goes into a hospital. He's not exactly dead. And now he's potentially brain dead, if these reports are to be believed. But they are in quotes keeping him alive to try and beat this August 3rd deadline for sure.

[Mary Lou]

I think. I would hope that they are honest. I hope that they would be honest.

[Chad]

Why hasn't the, why hasn't the governor of his state heard from him?

[Mary Lou]

Right. That is very bizarre.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Yeah.

[Mary Lou]

I wonder, has he tried to reach out? Did he say he tried to reach out or not? He just hadn't heard from him.

[Chad]

He said, I don't know. But this is a person who is a United States senator who hasn't been, I don't know how many votes he's missed at this point. Like he's clearly not doing his job.

[Mary Lou]

Yeah.

[Chad]

Incapable of doing it.

[Mary Lou]

Like I said, I hope people have enough integrity and are honest to tell us the truth. That's all we can ask for.

[Chad]

None of these people are doing that. The Republican Party doesn't do that.

[Mary Lou]

Well, I think it's the Democratic Party sometimes, too, for sure. I'm not saying about talking about integrity and the truth. That last clip of mine, you don't have to show. That's kind of stupid and unimportant. This is kind of important, and I didn't have a clip about it. But the young man that lost his life, Nolan Wells, and you know, his family buried him either a day or two days ago and they still don't know. You know, the family had the independent autopsy. One of his friends, now that was with him the night before has spoke about it, said they all. There were. They all went to the island together. There were boats all over. Everybody was happy. I do think he said that they were drinking. Maybe we need to know here what happened there. Somebody's covering something up.

[Chad]

Yeah, no shit.

[Mary Lou]

His family needs to know what happened, and I pray they get down to the bottom of it. It's just so bizarre. If you go out with friends, why didn't you come back with your friends, you know?

[John Solomon]

Yeah.

[Mary Lou]

And something about his cell phone was.

[Chad]

They had it and then they were deleting off of it and all that. Yeah, yeah, definitely those, I think his in quotes friends. It's not looking good. It looks like there's definitely some foul play, but I. I haven't heard anything else about it since that initial kind of information came out.

[Mary Lou]

Yeah. I'm praying for his family. I hope they find out the correct truth. Yeah. Little.

[White House Official]

I agree.

[Mary Lou]

Something isn't right.

[White House Official]

Yeah.

[Chad]

Well, I guess that wraps this episode up. Do you still think China interfered in the 2020 election?

[Mary Lou]

I'm not sure if they interfered, but they do have a lot of United States information of a lot of people's information. I do believe that.

[Chad]

So your mind has changed then?

[Mary Lou]

Not. I mean, I'm 50. 50 on it, but I do believe that they have a lot of our information.

[Chad]

Right. But on Sunday, I asked you, do you think China interfered in the 2020 election? You said, yes, I do. Now you don't.

[Mary Lou]

Yes, I still do. No, I still do.

[Chad]

I showed you a clip of that guy saying they didn't.

[Mary Lou]

I know. I still do. I think in some way.

[Chad]

Oh, my God. Okay. Well, I tried. Thank you for joining us today. We will be back on Sunday to discuss everything that's going on this week and beyond. So far, we've got some wild. FBI agents have been told to stop investigating ice encounters. Trump got booed at the FIFA championship. Refused to get off the stage when Spain was celebrating their big win. He has the lowest approval rating of all time. Ballroom donors have been given $50 billion in government contracts. Did you know that?

[Mary Lou]

Wow. No.

[Chad]

And we also have Trump put out a post. Trump put out a post minimizing the death of the soldiers in Iran. And today we learned that he's about to sign off on Saudi Arabia getting nuclear capabilities to enrich his American friends, who will be doing all the business deals on that. So there's a guy who says we gotta get rid of nuclear in the Middle east, but not Saudi Arabia. Not the people who did 9, 11 give them nuclear.

[Mary Lou]

Ridiculous. And I love you, Chad. I love you, Hailey. Don't eat. Lettuce, raspberries, chives, what else? There's so many things. That was one of my little clips. But it wasn't. I mean, be careful. Don't get sick.

[Chad]

Maybe you need to lose some weight. All right, I won't eat any of that.

[White House Official]

Thank you.

[Chad]

I love you, too, Mom. Thank you for doing this. I will see you on Sunday and wherever you are, Haley, I love you, too. I hope you're working hard. And tell dad that I love him as well, please.

[Mary Lou]

I will.

[Narrator/Reporter]

All right.

[Chad]

See everybody Sunday. Bye.

[Mary Lou]

Bye.