Virginia Senator Mark Warner went on national television and confidently stated something completely wrong about how voting works in his own state, and the host corrected him in real time. You truly love to see it.
As reported by The American Tribune, Warner appeared on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, July 19th, where host Jonathan Karl was asking him about photo identification requirements for voting. Karl specifically wanted to know why Democrats oppose requiring photo ID when over 80 percent of Americans and 71 percent of Democrats actually support the idea.
Warner decided the best move was to claim Virginia already requires photo ID. "In Virginia, we have voter ID and photo ID. I got to show my," he started saying before Karl cut him off like a teacher stopping a student from reading the wrong book report.
"That's actually not the case," Karl told him. And here's the beautiful part. Karl himself is a Virginia voter. So Warner was essentially trying to explain someone's own neighborhood to them and getting the street names wrong. Karl pointed out that Virginia accepts a wide variety of documents and that voters without any of them can simply sign a sworn statement confirming who they are. That is, shall we say, a slightly different system than "photo ID required."
Warner tried to recover by noting that those affidavit ballots could be contested later, which is kind of like saying your car has airbags because theoretically someone could throw a pillow at you during a crash. Karl wasn't buying it and reminded him flatly that photo identification is "not required."
So Warner retreated to the much vaguer position that Virginia has "voter ID of one form or another," which is a far cry from what he originally claimed. It's like saying you own a Ferrari and then clarifying that you meant you have a vehicle with four wheels.
To his credit, Warner did eventually say he could support requiring any government issued photo identification as a standard. He even made a fair point about certain states accepting NRA gun licenses but rejecting student IDs, arguing that if you're going to have an ID requirement, it should be consistent.
But then the pivot happened. Warner declared the whole conversation was beside the point because the SAVE America Act is really about "voter disenfranchisement." He claimed the bill would prevent some married women who changed their names from casting ballots without additional paperwork. He also accused Donald Trump of wanting to decrease voter participation and undermine confidence in elections.
Look, politicians getting basic facts wrong about their own states is practically a tradition at this point. But getting corrected by the interviewer who votes in your state, on camera, while millions watch? That's the kind of moment that lives forever on the internet. And thanks to the clip being shared by RNC Research, it found an audience far beyond the Sunday morning crowd. Sometimes the best comedy writes itself, and all you have to do is let a senator keep talking.
Read more American news stories at: The American Tribune
