CNN panel gets heated after Trump’s remarks on Pennsylvania mail-in ballots

A CNN panel got contentious Monday night after President Trump continued his attacks on a Supreme Court decision that will allow mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania to be counted for up to three days after the election. Trump has repeatedly claimed, without offering evidence, that allowing the ballots to be counted will lead to widespread voter fraud. He took it a step further Monday night in a tweet that was flagged by Twitter for possibly containing misleading information, claiming that the decision will “induce violence in the streets.” While former Republican senator Rick Santorm defended Trump, along with Republican efforts to limit vote counts in multiple states, Anderson Cooper, Van Jones and Gloria Borger weren’t having it. The three repeatedly shot down any defense Santorum came up with.

Video Transcript

VAN JONES: Tensions are high in this country because of stuff like that and the stuff that he's saying. He needs to cut it out and encourage everybody to vote safely and fairly, and he's not doing it.

RICK SANTORUM: Number one, the president--

VAN JONES: He's not doing it.

KYLIE MAR: Things got heated on Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night as a panel discussed President Trump's outrage over a Supreme Court decision that will allow mail in ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania for three days after the election. In a tweet that was flagged by Twitter for containing misleading information, Trump claimed on Monday that the decision would induce violence in the streets. Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum came to Trump's defense, but Cooper wasn't having it.

RICK SANTORUM: We saw it in Bush v Gore, which is you count until we win and you just keep going.

ANDERSON COOPER: You're interpreting what the president's talking about. We hear what the president's talking about. And what he's saying is BS. It is complete BS.

KYLIE MAR: Things didn't get any more civil when discussing Republican efforts in Texas to throw out hundreds of thousands of votes that have already been cast.

VAN JONES: Trying to stop it from outside the counties.

ANDERSON COOPER: Votes that have already been cast in Houston.

But this is a widespread ongoing Republican thing. Republicans don't want why a lot of people to vote.

RICK SANTORUM: Widespread. You're talking about one incident, OK? One incident--

ANDERSON COOPER: It seems like everywhere the president-- the Republicans seem to be on the side of limiting voting as much as possible.

RICK SANTORUM: What the president's talking about--

ANDERSON COOPER: One drop box ballot place in Houston?

KYLIE MAR: And when it came to Trump's insistence that the winner be announced on election night, even before all votes have been counted, Santorum was forced to admit the president is wrong.

GLORIA BORGER: He wants the election to end at midnight, miraculously. Somehow, OK, it's midnight, the election is over. And if he doesn't win and people are still counting votes, that means it's a rigged election. That's not the way elections work in this country.

RICK SANTORUM: Well, I disagree with that. And I don't know, maybe the president is making-- you know, not making the most cogent argument.