Former President Trump's false claims about voter fraud sparked a movement to restrict voting access. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Michael Waldman of the Brennan Center for Justice about the new laws.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In the first half of this year, 17 states have passed more than two dozen new laws that restrict access to the vote. Each day this week we'll be exploring those efforts. Our Right to Vote series begins by looking at how a persistent lie from Donald Trump led Republicans all over the country to push this new wave of legislation.
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CHRIS WALLACE: There is a tradition in this country - the peaceful transition of power.
SHAPIRO: The story begins before Trump was president, when he was a candidate in 2016. Chris Wallace of Fox News asked a question in a debate that no other candidate in recent memory has struggled to answer. But Trump was different.
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WALLACE: But the loser concedes to the winner. Are you saying you're not prepared now to...
DONALD TRUMP: What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense.
SHAPIRO: That hypothetical scenario didn't come to pass then since Trump won. Four years later, Chris Wallace asked again.
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WALLACE: Can you give a direct answer? You will accept the election.
TRUMP: I have to see. Look. You - I have to see. No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no. And I didn't last time, either.
SHAPIRO: And then it was time to vote. In the middle of a pandemic, more people cast ballots than ever before. And after four anxious days of waiting...
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WOLF BLITZER: We can now project the winner...
SHAPIRO: The final results came in.
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BLITZER: ...Of the presidential race.
BRET BAIER: Former Vice President Joe Biden will win Pennsylvania.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Joe Biden is president-elect.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The people of this nation have spoken.
SHAPIRO: In the days following the election, that question from Chris Wallace seemed prescient. Trump refused to concede for weeks. He falsely claimed the election was stolen.
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TRUMP: If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count...
SHAPIRO: None of that was true. His team, led by Rudy Giuliani, filed lawsuits, all of which were rejected.
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RUDY GIULIANI: There was a plan from a centralized place to execute these various acts of voter fraud specifically focused on big cities.
SHAPIRO: There was no such plan.
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TRUMP: Look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes.
SHAPIRO: Trump made personal appeals to election officials in states like Georgia, where Brad Raffensperger was secretary of state.
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BRAD RAFFENSPERGER: Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong.
SHAPIRO: When I interviewed Raffensperger's colleague Gabriel Sterling in December, he told me Trump's lies were already having real-world consequences.
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GABRIEL STERLING: And we saw kind of a rising level of, you know, language of violence around things and even death threats against my boss, Secretary Brad Raffensperger, sexualized threats to his wife on her personal cellphone and threats against me.
SHAPIRO: Eventually, states certified their totals, and then it fell to Congress. January 6 was the day to certify the vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who previously argued for letting the challenges play out, acknowledged that Biden was going to be the next president.
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MITCH MCCONNELL: My colleagues, nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election.
SHAPIRO: But Trump was not going quietly. He rallied thousands of supporters near the White House.
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TRUMP: And we're going to walk down to the Capitol.
SHAPIRO: And he gave them marching orders.
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TRUMP: You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
SHAPIRO: Within hours, those Trump supporters had mobbed the Capitol. They overwhelmed officers.
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UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: The crowd is using munitions against us. They have bear spray in the crowd.
SHAPIRO: One hundred forty people in uniform were injured, according to a bipartisan Senate report. Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by the mob.
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