Frederica Freyberg:

How do other Congressional Republicans square the presidential election results? And what about COVID relief out of Washington? We turn to U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany from the 7th Congressional District in northwest Wisconsin. He joins us from Washington and thanks very much for doing so.

Tom Tiffany:

Good to be here, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Senator Johnson told a constituent he knew that Joe Biden had won but he said it would be political suicide because of all his supporters to say so publicly. What do you say publicly?

Tom Tiffany:

I did not see Senator Johnson’s comments in regards to that so I really can’t comment on his remarks, but I believe it’s all part of the process at this point. And especially when you look at some of the events in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Georgia, there’s questions whether ballots came out at a very late hour and were counted that perhaps should not have. Pennsylvania has a very problematic situation where they counted ballots after the Election Day and that clearly violates the law in Pennsylvania. So I think there’s certainly anomalies out there and the process should be worked through here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So at this juncture you’re not ready to say that Joe Biden is president-elect?

Tom Tiffany:

No. Not until the process is completed and the electoral — I mean, who establishes the next president is the Electoral College. They have not met yet and we have not completed that process.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, as you know, and we’re kind of discussing this, the Trump campaign lawsuits alleging fraud and election irregularities have fallen across the country. They continue winding their way through Wisconsin courts right now. Is it your position that the election was rigged, as the president says, or rife with fraud and ought to be challenged in this way in Wisconsin?

Tom Tiffany:

I used the term anomalies earlier. And that clearly happened at a minimum across the country. When you see windows that are boarded up, I believe that was in Philadelphia, poll watchers being tossed out of being able to do their job, of being able to review ballots, there’s certainly concerns that are there. I think the bigger issues for me, though, I think it’s twofold. One is this accepting ballots after Election Day I do not believe should happen. The second thing is mail-in ballots, which by the way are different than the absentee system here in Wisconsin. Mail-in ballots, I believe that that needs to be ended also because as President Carter said when he was co-chairman of a commission 15 years ago, it leaves the possibility for fraud to be much more rampant.

Frederica Freyberg:

Mail-in ballots, absentee ballots are often mailed in if they are not dropped in drop boxes.

Tom Tiffany:

Yeah. That’s right. So there’s a difference. I think Wisconsin’s absentee system works because you have to request it. The difference I see is when you mail ballots to everyone. That’s what President Carter and the commission he co-chaired talked about is, it leaves the possibility for fraud to be greater in that situation. There’s a difference.

Frederica Freyberg:

All of this discussion of fraud and irregularities, do you think it does damage to the confidence of the U.S. electoral system?

Tom Tiffany:

I think possibly it could. But I think it’s also healthy for us to review our institutions. And if there’s one thing that I believe about Donald Trump, ever since he came down that escalator and announced he was going to run five years ago, he has lifted the lid on institutions that we’ve always had great faith in in this country, including like the FBI, the state department. And we’ve found that there’s some rot in there that needs to be cleaned up. And I think that there are some instances where our election system can do better, and I think he’s highlighting that, and I think that’s healthy for our country.

Frederica Freyberg:

As to elected officials doing work in Washington, there’s a COVID relief package on the table, something shy of $1 trillion. What do you want to see in that specifically and what do you think Wisconsin needs to take from that?

Tom Tiffany:

There’s two things that I believe should be in there. One is liability protections. And the other one is to have targeted relief for — for example, we’ve been promoting for three months to do the Paycheck Protection Extension Plan authored by Representative Chabot out of Ohio. Speaker Pelosi refuses to take that bill up. She hasn’t done it for three months. It really targets relief towards some business sectors that really need help, especially hospitality, hotels, restaurants. Some of them are really in dire shape. And there is a plan there to be able to pass that. Once again now this week, we saw nothing happen under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi. We had a bill in regards to tigers. We had a bill in regards to legalizing marijuana. Nothing to get relief for those businesses that have been hurt because of lockdowns through no fault of their own.

Frederica Freyberg:

We look forward to some potential action on that next week. But Representative Tom Tiffany, thank you very much for joining us from Washington.

Tom Tiffany:

Good to be with you, Frederica.