Texas Republican goes down in flames against CNN host after trying to justify voter suppression

Things didn't go well for Texas Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes when he faced off against CNN host Pamela Brown on Sunday evening.

Speaking about the new Texas voter suppression bill, Brown asked why it makes sense to pass stricter voter restrictions when the state leaders called the 2020 election "safe and secure."

Hughes desperately tried to change the subject to being about poll watchers not being present to monitor people dropping their ballots in boxes.

"Poll watchers are the eyes and ears of the public," Hughes claimed.

"But what is a new concept is allowing them to videotape voters while they're filling out their ballots with assistants. I was reading through the bill, as it is earlier, and it's all founded on this idea of preventing fraud. It says: 'This was enacted solely to prevent fraud in the electoral process.' But the Texas attorney general's office put 22,000 hours into trying to dig up voter fraud and only found 16 minor cases. That is statistically insignificant. To what end can they put restrictions on voting when the instances of fraud are statistically insignificant, and you risk disenfranchising voters who have a constitutionally protected right to vote?"

Hughes claimed that there are over 400 open investigations into possible voter fraud. Brown corrected him and said not from 2020. The majority of the cases, she said, involved people having errors in their addresses.

"There are over 400 open cases," Hughes maintained. "Let me give you some details in the 2018 election cycle. Please remember our legislature meets every two years. So, when problems come up we try to deal with them. In 2017 the legislature passed a mail ballot reform bill passed with bipartisan support. I filed Senate bill 9. And here we are again."

"I'm talking about the 2020 election and what you're trying to do with this bill," Brown cut in.

Hughes tried to accuse Brown of wanting to fight over the Georgia bill.

"We had Democrats testify under oath about cheating, with mail ballots, with people claiming to offer assistance," Hughes claimed. "We responded to what Democrats told us under oath in front of the Senate committee."

"Are you really saying that this bill is predicated on what Democrats had testified to? Democrats have come out and said that it will disproportionately hurt minorities in Texas because more than half of those voting at those drive-through locations were minorities, according to one Democratic lawmaker," Brown clapped back.

It developed into chaos as Hughes desperately tried to justify why it's safe for someone to put a check in a bank-drop box but not a ballot in a state drop-box.

See the video below:

Texas voter suppression lawswww.youtube.com