This is painful. Today, Jim Acosta nailed Trump’s former acting DHS Sec. Chad Wolf on peddling election lies (Part of how one can tell Trump was a budding autocrat is that nearly every cabinet position was an “acting” one by the end, an inability to hire and hold good people). Chad Wolf is still so “MAGA” that he won’t commit the sin of admitting that Biden won the election.

He is shamelessly casting doubt on democracy and election legitimacy in this country, and Jim Acosta wasn’t going to let it happen without some punishment on his show. Acosta began by asking about the 2020 election. From Mediaite, Wolf responded:

“I think there’s a number of election irregularities, illegalities, and fraud. That’s been widely reported on both the right and the left.”

Acosta wanted a real answer: “But enough to alter the outcome of the 2020 election? Are you an election denier?”

Wolf answered that “any type of election fraud” was “important” and “should be addressed.”

And then it got worse:

Acosta: “Who won the 2020 election?”

Wolf: “Obviously Joe Biden is president.”

Acosta: “No, no, no, no.”

Wolf: “I just answered your question.”

And it went on:

“No, but he is the president, obviously,” said Acosta. “He is the president,” Wolf agreed.

“I’ve seen folks from Trump World parse this out, and say, ‘OK, Joe Biden is president.’ We know that, OK, that is a matter of fact,” Acosta said “Do you believe that he won that election fair and square?”

Wolf insisted that he had “just answered the question,” and continued, “One, Joe Biden is president. Two, a number of irregularities, illegalities, and fraud occurred during 2020.”

“But not sufficient to throw the election to Joe Biden,” Acosta interjected.

The two spoke across each other, with Wolf saying he did not “have all that evidence” and there had been reporting on these issues, specifically citing a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on drop boxes, and Acosta responding, “You sound like a conspiracy theorist.”

Acosta went on to discuss that the U.S. Supreme Court “wanted nothing to do with anything, any of these challenges. Trump lost over and over and over again. Why not accept that? Why not move on?” Again from Mediaite:

I have moved on,” and Acosta asked him if Trump should “still be out there peddling the election lies that he spreads every day?” and if Wolf thought the ex-president was “lying about the 2020 election.”

Polling said people on both the left and right “do not have confidence in our election system and that’s a problem,” said Wolf.

“Our elections are fine,” Acosta replied as Wolf scoffed. “You are the former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security and you’re spreading doubt and fear –”

“It’s not doubt,” Wolf interjected.

“– About our election process,” Acosta continued.

“These are facts,” said Wolf.

“These are alternative facts,” said Acosta.

And from Mediaite:

They both then echoed their previous comments, with Acosta saying Biden “won fair and square,” Wolf asking the CNN anchor if he believed there was “no fraud,” Acosta pointing to former Attorney General Bill Barr calling Trump’s claims of fraud “bullsh*t,” Wolf saying again there were “a number of irregularities, illegalities and fraud,” and Acosta replying “not sufficient to alter the outcome.”

Finally, Acosta just laid the hammer down:

“You can’t continue to sow these seeds of doubt about American democracy. It’s simply failing the American people to continue to lead them down this path of lies.”

****

[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman