According to sources close to Jason Kander:
“As with all other news outlets, we do not control the content. Jason sat for an interview then they produced a video and published it themselves. We asked for a correction when the video came out, but they never corrected it.”
Apparently, Let America Vote did not produce this video but an organization called “Newsy.” That said, Kander sat for the video, and it looks not at all like a news piece and very much like a promotional piece. Our apologies.
Previously reported:
In February 2017, before shifting his ambitions to the Kansas City mayor’s race, former Missouri Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate Jason Kander launched an organization called “Let America Vote.”
Wunderkind Kander loaded his board with prominent progressives including Planned Parenthood honcho Cecile Richards and Stephanie Schriock of Emily’s List, a group dedicated to promoting female pro-choice candidates.
In September 2017, Let America Vote posted a video online featuring Kander and titled “Jason Kander on Why We Need to Stand Up for Voting Rights.” Speaking to the camera, Kander begins with the dubious assertion, “As an American you are more likely to be struck by lightening than you are to commit voter impersonation fraud.”
As to his claims of voter fraud, Kander might want to recall a case that took place on his watch in 2016. In that case, the incumbent Penny Hubbard seemed to have won the Democratic primary for Missouri’s 78th House District by 90 votes.
The absentee vote count, however, was so imbalanced in her favor that her opponent, Bruce Franks, Jr., challenged the count, and District Judge Rex Burlison threw out the election. Franks won the special election by a margin of 1,533 votes. Although no one was charged with voter impersonation fraud, it is hard to account for the lopsided absentee ballot count without a good deal of it.
Following talk of voter fraud, the video then cuts to Kander’s well known 2016 campaign ad during which he talked about Second Amendment rights while breaking down a weapon blindfolded. On the screen, over the imagery, the text reads, “Jason Kander is an Army veteran, a former Missouri Attorney General, and a former U.S, Senate candidate.”
The problem with the video, of course, is that Kander never was Missouri’s attorney general. As a title, especially for someone alleged to be an expert in voter fraud or the absence thereof, “attorney general” sounds much more substantial than “secretary of state.”
Although Kander accuses President Trump of pushing a “giant lie” in the video, one has to wonder why he let this not so little lie go by. Did his obvious ambitions overwhelm his common sense? Or was it simply an oversight by some young staffer that went uncorrected in Kander’s rush to national acclaim? In either case, video fraud seems to be as much a problem in Missouri as voter fraud.