A right-wing panelist on CNN got shut down by “NewsNight” host Abby Phillip as she tried to claim that “non-citizen voting” fraud is a big problem in the U.S., but it was the look on attorney and progressive political commentator Bakari Sellers’ face that said it all.
In a chaotic panel discussion on the show Wednesday, Feb. 4, as President Donald Trump continues ad nauseum claiming the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him and after he sent the FBI into Fulton County, Georgia, to raid and election center the night of Thursday, Jan. 28, to somehow try and prove it, conservative commentator Brianna Lyman tried to offer proof of the practically non-existent fraud.
“Non-citizen voting does happen even if it is ‘rare, according to some on the left,” Lyman, a reporter for the right-wing news site The Federalist, began.
“How frequent is it?” Phillip asked.
Lyman started shuffling through notes to try to prove her point.
“The actual numbers,” Phillip requested.
“A Georgia audit found 20 non-citizens registered to vote, nine of them ended up voting in a previous election,” Lyman quoted.
“Twenty?” Phillip asked with a grin on her face, and the other panelists jumped in.
But a serious Lyman wasn’t having it.
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“You know it’s funny when you guys mock small amounts, but let’s remember that Marinette Meeks-Miller won her 2020 election by six votes,” Lyman declared.
Phillip jumped in, “Were they six undocumented immigrants?”
“My point is is that some elections are decided quite literally on the margins and every vote counts,” she continued.
As Lyman was trying to make her case, Sellers was looking on incredulously in clear disbelief at the flimsy numbers she was citing to try to prove the 2020 election was rife with fraud, which it wasn’t.
But Phillips interjected, “Not a single presidential election has been decided by a margin of non-citizen voters,” she said as other panelists continued to talk over each other.
“Just because it doesn’t impact a presidential election does not mean it is not worthy of attention,” Lyman persisted.
“What is the percentage of fraudulent, non-citizen voting in America?” the “NewsNight” host asked, but Lyman did not know, even as she was insisting that it’s a problem.
Lyman went on to cite small numbers, but over the past 20 years, the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has investigated voting fraud, found just 77 cases over dozens of elections and hundreds of millions of votes cast.
Phillip told Lyman she wanted her to go through the small number of stats that she had in order to show how “incredibly rare this is.”
Social media exploded, especially over the look on Sellers’ face.
“That Black guy glancing around like ‘Are y’all hearing this sh-t?’ is hilarious,” a Threads user hilariously pointed out.
Another agreed, including two laughing emojis in her response, “Bakari’s face is all of us.”
And still another chimed in, “Bakari be looking like his internal monologue is ‘is she fckn serious?’ , ‘why am I here with these ppl?’” “is it actually possible to be this dumb?”
Other posts dragged Lyman for clearly trying to insist voting fraud is a problem when investigation after investigation has found it’s not.
“It’s always the biggest idiots who think they’re smart,” this Threads user proclaimed.
Another was very direct, “Complete MORON.”
Threads poster Leon Anochili tried to set Lyman straight.
“Brianna, please take a statistics 101 class. Over the course of 20+ years, there have been almost a billion votes casted total among all elections in that time period. And going by Abby’s number, 77, that is a fraction going into the 100 millionth place. That is less than immaterial/consequential. If you want to make it even less inconsequential, get rid of the electoral college.
Repeated court decisions after the 2020 election found no fraud and ruled the election was free and fair, including by the Supreme Court.
But the CNN panel discussion and continued claims of voting fraud by conservatives on the right come amid fears the Republicans are going to lose the 2026 mid-term elections because of Trump’s disastrous economic and foreign policy decisions.
In fact, Trump spent the week suggesting the GOP should “take over” the elections, which are administered by states under the U.S. Constitution. But Trump is falsely insisting that the federal government should oversee them because of fraudulent voting by illegal immigrants, an unproven and false accusation that critics contend is a setup for Trump and his cronies to cheat and control the outcomes.
