michael watson SoS miss
SOME RUBBER GLUE DEFLECTION FROMTRUMP COUP J6?
TRUMP SPUTS bs W/ [SOME]PPL ARE SAYING? SHE GOES WITH UNNAMED REPUBLICANS
AN 4 24
Fox News Business host Maria Bartiromo is promoting the thoroughly debunked claim an executive order signed by President Joe Biden allows “illegal immigrants” and “felons” to vote.
Bartiromo, in pushing the false claim, told Fox News viewers, “Republicans are warning that there’s a Biden order, executive order, which allows illegal immigrants and felons to vote.”
There is no such order.
“It doesn’t appear that Joe Biden can win on his policies,” Bartiromo said Wednesday. “A Wall Street Journal poll this morning shows Trump leading Biden in six out of seven swing states, that’s Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin, the two are tied in a head-to-head matchup. So how does Biden win? Republicans are talking about the potential of an election that is tampered with. Republicans are warning that there’s a Biden order, executive order, which allows illegal immigrants and felons to vote.”
READ MORE: Jack Smith’s ‘Blistering’ Response to Judge Cannon Could ‘Remove Her From the Case’: Experts
The conspiracy theory appears to have come from Mississippi’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson three years ago, a conspiracy theory Watson himself resurfaced last month.
Fox News several weeks ago reported Watson had sent the U.S. Dept. of Justice a letter “asking it to stop enforcing a Biden executive order that he warns is being used to attempt to register ineligible convicts and illegal immigrants to vote.”
“As you are aware, on March 7, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order No. 14019 which sought to turn the Department of Justice agencies from their historical missions of law enforcement to voter registration and get out the vote operations,” Watson wrote, according to Fox News. “These efforts are an intrusion into state matters and are a misuse of federal revenue and resources. In addition, it appears that these efforts have led to agencies under your charge attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.”
The fact-checking website Verify makes clear: “No, Biden’s executive order doesn’t allow ineligible people to vote.” It also says it’s “not true” that Biden’s order “would make it easier for ineligible people to vote.”
READ MORE: ‘Says You!’: Kirby Smacks Down Doocy
A USA Today fact check arrives at the same conclusion: “No, Biden didn’t (and can’t) allow immigrants in US illegally to vote.”
“Experts said the claim is nonsense. Biden has issued no such order, and he does not have the power to decide who votes.” Also, the paper notes, “in 1996, Congress made it illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.”
When he was a state lawmaker Watson voted against making it easier for college students to register to vote, and in 2021, as Mississippi Secretary of State, Watson said “he is worried that the nation will suffer if more ‘woke’ and ‘uninformed’ college students become registered voters,” the Mississippi Free Press reported at the time. The news outlet took a deep dive into Watson’s extensive claims, also debunking them.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber in 2021 highlighted Watson’s remarks, and called them, “just one of many occurrences of GOP officials unintentionally revealing they don’t want everyone to vote.”
Watch Bartiromo below or at this link.
---
4 24
Michael D. Watson Jr. (born December 22, 1977)[1] is an American politician and the incumbent Secretary of State of Mississippi.[2] A Republican, he previously represented the 51st district in the Mississippi State Senate from 2008 to 2020.
Career
Watson is an attorney from Pascagoula, Mississippi. He ran in the 2007 Mississippi elections for the state senate against Tommy Robertson, and won.[3] Watson considered running for governor of Mississippi in the 2015 Mississippi gubernatorial election, but opted to run for reelection instead.[4]
While in the Mississippi Senate, Watson voted against legislation that would make it easier for college students in Mississippi to vote with absentee ballots; under the legislation, students would have been allowed to use college registrars as witnesses for their absentee ballot application.[5]
In the 2019 Mississippi elections, Watson ran for Secretary of State of Mississippi.[6] He defeated Sam Britton in the Republican primary,[7] and defeated Johnny DuPree in the general election on November 5.[8] He was sworn-in to the office on January 9, 2020.[9]
In a television interview on March 26, 2021, Watson expressed concern that "woke" college students in Mississippi, among others, would vote, falsely claiming that an Executive Order by President Biden on March 6, 2021, would automatically register people to vote.[10][5] Watson also falsely claimed that people would be sneakily registered without their knowledge.[5]
After considering challenging Tate Reeves in the 2023 Mississippi gubernatorial election,[11] Watson elected instead to run for reelection.[12] He defeated Democrat Ty Pinkins to win a second term.[13]
References
- ^ "Candidate - Michael D. Watson". Our Campaigns. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ "Michael Watson (Mississippi)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ "State losing vocal leaders in senate - Picayune Item". December 26, 2007.
- ^ Pender, Geoff (February 26, 2015). "Watson running for re-election, not higher office". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ Jump up to:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Watson%28Mississippi_politician%29#cite_ref-:0_5-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Watson%28Mississippi_politician%29#cite_ref-:0_5-2) "Mississippi Elections Chief Warns Biden May Register 'Woke,' 'Uninformed' College Voters". Mississippi Free Press. April 6, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ "Sen. Michael Watson plans run for secretary of state". Clarionledger.com. August 3, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
- ^ "Mississippi Secretary of State race: Watson, DuPree win primaries". Clarionledger.com. August 6, 2019. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
- ^ "The Latest: Maxwell wins Public Service Commission seat | State". mdjonline.com. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ Pettus, Emily Wagster (January 10, 2020). "7 of 8 statewide officials inaugurated". The Greenwood Commonwealth. Associated Press. pp. 1, 12.
- ^ "SOS Michael Watson under fire for voter registration comments made on WLOX". WLOX. April 9, 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Journal, TAYLOR VANCE Daily. "Secretary of State Michael Watson mulls move to oust Gov. Tate Reeves". Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
- ^ "Secretary of State Michael Watson announces 2023 run for reelection". Clarionledger.com. January 19, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ^ https://www.wapt.com/article/candidates-for-mississippi-secretary-of-state-michael-watson-ty-pinkins/45737432
External links
| Party political offices | Party political offices | Party political offices |
|---|---|---|
Preceded by | Republican nominee for Secretary of State of Mississippi 2019, 2023 | Most recent |
| Political offices | Political offices | Political offices |
Preceded by | Secretary of State of Mississippi 2020–present | Incumbent |
|
statewide political officials of Mississippi
Secretaries of state in the United States
secretaries of State of Mississippi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_State_of_Mississippi "Secretary of State of Mississippi")
- 1977 births
- 21st-century American lawyers
- 21st-century American politicians
- Living people
- Mississippi lawyers
- Republican Party Mississippi state senators
- People from Pascagoula, Mississippi
- Secretaries of State of Mississippi
- University of Mississippi alumni