CNN’s Brianna Keilar repeatedly cut off Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes Wednesday morning as he incorrectly claimed his state has “hundreds of open cases” of voter fraud.
Hughes is the lead sponsor of a restrictive new voting bill in Texas that, Keilar pointed out, will decrease the amount of people of color who end up voting in elections in the state.
“I just ask: Why is that when you only have 43 pending voter fraud charges in Texas? Only one is from 2020. You’ve previously misquoted that as, I think, about 400. It’s really 43. Only one is from 2020 and there were 16 minor prosecutions for 2020. It was just people putting down addresses that weren’t theirs,” she said.
Hughes replied immediately, “There are hundreds of open cases in Texas.”
“No. There’s not,” she said, and the two went back and forth for a moment until Keilar said, “You may be talking about complaints, which anyone can file. There are not ‘hundreds of open cases.’ There are 43 pending voter fraud charges in Texas. This is according to your Republican attorney general’s office. There are not hundreds, Sir.”
Hughes made the same claims on CNN over the weekend, which resulted in the Houston Chronicle running a fact-checking piece earlier this week. The Chronicle also only found 43 pending cases, pointing out that one stemmed from the 2020 election in which 11 million Texans cast their votes.
Democrats walked out of the Texas legislature’s session this week, stalling the passage of the voter restriction bill in the state.
Watch Keilar and Hughes square off below, via CNN.