Pelosi: Republicans’ ‘purpose is to frighten people from voting’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday that Republicans’ “purpose is to frighten people from voting” as several members of the GOP have promoted the unfounded theory that mail-in voting opens up the election to fraud. 

Pelosi countered White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s comments on CNN on Sunday that “there’s no evidence that there’s not” widespread voter fraud.

“Don’t pay any attention to them,” she said on MSNBC. “Their purpose is to frighten people from voting. The more chaos they can create, the more fear they can instill about ‘Well, your vote is not gonna count anyway.’”

“Don’t pay any attention to them,” Speaker Pelosi says, discussing the Trump admin.’s mail-in voter fraud claims. “Their purpose is to frighten people from voting. The more chaos they can create, the more fear they can instill about ‘well, your vote is not going to count.'” pic.twitter.com/ILCJvk7MCH

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 18, 2020

The also accused Republicans of aiming to “scare people” and called on Americans to “just ignore them.”

“You can’t let the other side kind of frame the climate in which the election will take place,” she said. “We will have vote by mail. It will be successful. We will not depend on the president to anoint it.”

“Don’t pay attention to their scare tactics because that’s a victory for them,” she added.

Pelosi’s remarks come as lawmakers aim to address changes made to the U.S. Postal Service that have delayed mail delivery ahead of an election expected to have a record number of mail-in ballots. 

President Trump and his administration have advanced the narrative that mail-in voting will allow more voter fraud to take place, although existing evidence does not support their theory.