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Open to Debate

Agree to Disagree: Are Election Lawsuits Good For Democracy?

Open to Debate

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.52.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joe Biden delivered a victory speech. His team is planning to take power. But rather than concede, President Trump has instead turned to the courts, with election lawsuits in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. It's a historic moment, and for many an unsettling one. But could these lawsuits actually be good for democracy? Two competing legal minds weigh in, with Intelligence Squared host and moderator John Donvan at the helm. Arguing "YES," is Rebecca Roiphe, a Manhattan prosecutor and law professor who focuses on ethics and the history of the legal profession. Arguing “NO” is Ian Bassin, a former attorney in the Obama White House and the co-founder of Protect Democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Sometimes running a business can feel like cycling uphill with square wheels.

0:07.0

But zero online accounting software can help predict the future cash flow of your business.

0:15.0

So you can stay one step ahead. Soon it'll feel more like free-wearing downhill.

0:21.0

On a tandem! What, mate? With a messer on the back.

0:25.0

Oh, that's nice.

0:27.0

Search zero with an ace. It goes healthy business as beautiful business.

0:30.0

There are a lot of people out there who are sane and normal, who voted for Trump for various different reasons.

0:37.0

And I think those people will be paying attention to what happens in these courts.

0:41.0

The president is not limiting his contest of the election to the courts.

0:45.0

He's flooding the zone in order to amplify what he is doing on Twitter and in the media,

0:51.0

which is spreading massive disinformation.

0:55.0

Hi, everybody. I'm John Don Van. And this is Intelligent Squared US.

1:06.0

And elections, like the one we've just been through, elections in some ways are like the debates we do at Intelligent Squared.

1:13.0

They have winners and they have losers and they have rules.

1:16.0

But elections also let the presumed loser challenge the outcome.

1:21.0

That's why we have recounts after some elections and lawsuits.

1:25.0

Challenging election outcomes is not anything new.

1:28.0

But the campaign of litigation by a still unconceiting president Trump is something that he's really going for.

1:36.0

Calling the election flawed in Pennsylvania and Michigan and Nevada and on and on and on.

1:42.0

It really kind of sets a new standard for challenging a national election this way.

1:48.0

It's much bigger than what happened in Florida in 2000.

1:51.0

Now, of course, all of this is Donald Trump's right.

...

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