Legislative Hearings on November Election Dominated by Debunked Conspiracy Theories

On Tuesday, Republican state lawmakers held an hours-long Senate Oversight Committee hearing that featured lots of already-debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the November election. President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is expected to appear in person at another Oversight hearing on Wednesday night.

“It was very much focused on what happened in 2020 and we only heard — for seven hours — one side of that story.” – Lauren Gibbons, MLive.

What is the point of these hearings at this point? What is the endgame for legislative Republicans?

Listen: MLive political reporter Lauren Gibbons discusses this week’s hearings and the Legislature’s “Lame Duck” session

Guest

Lauren Gibbons is a Lansing-based reporter covering Michigan politics and policy for MLive. She says the original goals of these hearings, according to Republicans on the committee, was to examine the election and see how Michigan could improve its practices in the future. However, she says the tone of the hearing on Tuesday was very different.

“It was very much focused on what happened in 2020 and we only heard — for seven hours — one side of that story,” says Gibbons.

She notes that there were concerns even before the hearing began about how safe it would be to attend.

“In watching the hearing yesterday, there were many people in the room at the same time,” Gibbons says. “There were folks in there who were not wearing masks. And, of course, this was a seven-hour hearing.”

Gibbons and Henderson also discuss Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s calls for the Legislature to focus on pandemic response during their last weeks of the year, including a $100 million state stimulus package and a mask mandate.