Fox News host: “You want to see a threat to democracy? It’s what we’re watching in Arizona right now.”
Pete Hegseth claims Arizona counting ballots is a threat to democracy moments after his co-host Will Cain suggests that less people should vote
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From the November 13, 2022 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends Sunday
PETE HEGSETH (FOX NEWS HOST): 268,000 still need to be processes in Arizona.
WILL CAIN (FOX NEWS HOST): So that stat, a stunning stat, buried there in Alexandria's report that in Nevada that was just called in favor of the Democrat candidate Catherine Cortez Masto, 75% of the vote early or mail-in balloting, a stunning stat. Okay, so you mentioned this earlier. Most of the world doesn't conduct elections the way that we have now embraced.
HEGSETH: No, they're not foolish enough to.
CAIN: Yeah, this is a Covid movement that has now been retained. We are still voting not on election day and not in person. We are moving to massive mail-in balloting as really the bulk of our election. Not yet, but we're on the path to that. You know now, when critics, when we suggest hey that might not be the healthiest way to conduct a democracy, critics would say what, you don't want more people voting? You don't want as much of your populace taking place? You know, I would ask this in return. If we right now we decided you know what we're gonna do from now on? We're gonna do internet voting, alright? All you have to do is click on to a website and click. Is that where we're headed? Like because-
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (FOX NEWS HOST): Probably.
HEGSETH: That's where they'd want us to.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: They'd love that.
CAIN: I'm here to tell you that more doesn't mean necessarily healthy. I mean, everybody voting. Do you think everybody is invested in this? Is everyone familiar with the candidates? Do they know the issues? I think that there is a minimal effort in going to the poll that reflects a certain level of investment-
HEGSETH: Investment.
CAIN: - and skin in the game. I think we're gonna have to ask ourselves at some point in the not-too-distant future, what is the threshold of investment? Is it this? A click? Because we're headed there.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Well, also this idea that we would vote months in advance without the same information when we go to the polls. You recall with, just in 2020, how many people voted before they found out about the Hunter Biden laptop. Now granted, the media and big tech suppressed that story, a very important story as we know, as our president is about to meet with XI Jinping and Chinese intelligence knows exactly what's on that laptop even if some Americans at that time didn't, but that said, you know, there were still, the number one Google search was how do I change my vote right after that story came out, even though it was suppressed and people got it. So people should go in with the same information. I believe that it's not about necessarily putting in the effort, I think there is just a beautiful, civic unity moment, we talk about how divided we are, let's have a national holiday on election day. Let's let people, as you said yesterday, let them vote the whole weekend and then up to election day, the weekend before. Let's use paper ballots. Let's have I.D. cards like they do in Mexico and every other country takes their election seriously. And let's have paper ballots so we can track it and feel confident about it, and feel confident in our democracy.
HEGSETH: You're right. I mean when I was deployed to Iraq, our job was to secure elections in Iraq. Where people were trying to blow up polling stations. Al Qaeda was trying to blow up polling stations. You know what Iraq did? You remember the purple finger? The purple finger was I voted once and I can prove I voted already and if I've got ink on my finger, I can't vote again. Simple is better when it comes to elections. The civic engagement of that moment was really significant. Will, what you're not- you're not saying I want less people to vote. That's not the point. What you're saying is voting should not be as simple as ordering an Amazon package because there's a lot more at stake with what you should be considering when you cast your ballot. Everyone get access to that information and whether its a weekend or whatever it is, let's all go together to the polls so that we can all learn together what the result is, and most importantly, have faith in that result. You want to see a threat to democracy? It's what we're watching in Arizona right now. As we don't know whether people are cheating or not, but all I know is there are 265,000 ballots that still haven't been counted and it's Sunday, and is it gonna cut for Kari Lake, will it not? Katie Hobbs is in charge of the elections there. Hopefully it's all aboveboard. Charlie Kirk says so far, it looks like it is, and he pays very close attention. Looks like the next few dumps of ballots will be good for Kari Lake. That will be a test. If Kari Lake can go into Arizona and fix that election system, then I think could about give us hope that Republicans can go on the offense to make this more simple. Simple is better. It means faith in the system.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: But those changes will have to be done very soon, and the reason I say that is right now there's a new generation of people voting who think this is normal.
CAIN: It's the new normal.
They think this is normal. This is the way it's done. So if you wait 10 years to draw this back, they're gonna say oh voter suppression. So I just think, I just think you're right simple is better.
HEGSETH: I'm for purple finger. I'm done. I say purple finger.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: I'm not opposed to that.
CAIN: I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about a lot of things right now. I'm thinking about those man on the streets that Jesse Watters does, or you ask the percentage of American people name the Vice President of the United States, you know? What do you think percentage is of people can name the Vice President of United States.
HEGSETH: It's not very high. I mean, but all of those people --
CAMPOS-DUFFY: But they still have a right to vote.
CAIN: I'm not trying to taking anybody's right to vote away. I want everybody to have the right to vote. All I'm asking is that you understand a little bit what you're voting for.
HEGSETH: Because right now it's here's your ballot. Fill it out right in front of me right now, and and here's the cheat sheet of who you should be voting for. Fill it out. Okay, you're done? I've been watching. Good job. Alright, give me your ballot. Now I hand it in. That's now what civic engagement is supposed to be.
[CROSSTALK]
CAIN: Are you voting for the racist of the good guy?
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Right, yeah no no no. Totally Totally.
HEGSETH: That's how machine politics works.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Or what I told you last week with our young Fox interns who tried to vote for the first time in New York City because they just moved here and they said is this your address right here? I mean, come on.