Fake News: Rep. Veronica Escobar Did NOT Warn: 'American Voters Must Not Be Allowed To Vote In Favor Of Donald Trump In The Upcoming Election'

Fact Check

  • by: Eric Ferkenhoff
Fake News: Rep. Veronica Escobar Did NOT Warn: 'American Voters Must Not Be Allowed To Vote In Favor Of Donald Trump In The Upcoming Election'

Did U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar warn that American voters must not be allowed to vote for Trump in the 2020 election? No, that's not true: Escobar, a Texas Democrat, never said those words in a CNN interview, as claimed in a story that carried a headline with the quote. Not only were words put in Escobar's mouth, but what she did say was taken out of context to make it seem that she wanted to deny voters a chance to cast a vote for President Trump in November 2020.

The story originated from an article published by theredpillednews.com on December 10, 2019, titled "Rep. Veronica Escobar Warns: 'American Voters Must Not Be Allowed To Vote In Favor Of Donald Trump In The Upcoming Election'" (archived here) which opened:

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), who is a member of the Democratic Party, has cautioned every single American who is available to vote in the following presidential election.

She guaranteed that voters should be stopped from voting in favor of Donald Trump in the upcoming elections. Trump should never be voted as POTUS again.

Talking with CNN, Texas Democrat Escobar claimed that Americans shouldn't worry about the impeachment process, however they should be happy about it. She says Trump should be impeached because he broke the law!

Escobar concedes she is "worried in general about 2020" because of the probability that President Trump will win once again.

The liberal lawmaker went on to furiously proclaim that "if we wait for an election to settle this, then we will have waited too long."

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

Rep. Veronica Escobar Warns: 'American Voters Must Not Be Allowed To Vote In Favor Of Donald Trump In The Upcoming Election'

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), who is a member of the Democratic Party, has cautioned every single American who is available to vote in the following presidential election. She guaranteed that voters should be stopped from voting in favor of Donald Trump in the upcoming elections. Trump should never be voted as POTUS again. Talking with ...

Escobar's statement "if we wait for an election to settle this, then we will have waited too long," was a reply to CNN's Jake Tapper's question about why the House should not slow down the impeachment process and wait until courts rule on if document and witness subpoenas are enforceable, allowing for a stronger case against the president. She answered:

The House Judiciary Committee, the Robert Mueller report, we are still fighting to gain access to some of those materials. If we wait for the courts, if we wait for an election to settle this, then we will have waited too long in my opinion, especially after what we heard yesterday about making sure that we have a check on a corrupt executive who is willing to corrupt an election.

Escobar never suggested American voters should not be allowed to vote for Trump in a general election. She was calling in Americans to pressure their senators to preserve "the sanctity of our elections," which she implied impeachment of Trump would do:

And if Americans want to make sure we maintain a strong democracy and that we do that through our elections, they need to pressure their senators, because -- who knows what's going to happen in the House? Who knows -- I don't want to get ahead of anything we are doing, but the American people have a say and they need to put pressure on their elected leaders about preserving and defending the Constitution and our republic. That really, truly is what's at stake here.
Even if Trump is found guilty in an impeachment trial, it would not prevent him for being the on the ballot in November for a new term. It would not necessarily prevent anyone from voting for him.
Read the full CNN transcript of Scobar's interview here.

The story from redpillednews.com also referred to a similar quote falsely attributed to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Lead Stories previously debunk the claim that Pelosi said "the voters are not going to decide" the election. Read our article titled, "Fake News: Pelosi Did NOT Tell Dems 'Too Dangerous' To Wait For Election To Decide President".

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  Eric Ferkenhoff

Eric Ferkenhoff has been a reporter, editor and professor for 27 years, working chiefly out of the Midwest and now the South. Focusing on the criminal and juvenile justice systems, education and politics, Ferkenhoff has won several journalistic and academic awards and helped start a fact-checking project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he continues to teach advanced reporting. Ferkenhoff also writes and edits for the juvenile justice site JJIE.org.

 

Read more about or contact Eric Ferkenhoff

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