Not many people spend time watching hearings hosted by state legislative committees, for obvious reasons. In March, though, the Wisconsin State Assembly’s Campaigns and Elections Committee hosted two representatives of the conservative group True the Vote to hear allegations about the collection and submission of ballots in the 2020 presidential election.
It was one of the first full articulations of a claim that has recently become a central part of the political right’s efforts to undercut the election, thanks to conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s featuring True the Vote’s allegations in his film “2000 Mules.”
The case presented by True the Vote’s Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht to those Wisconsin legislators was not convincing, as I wrote last month. D’Souza responded, inviting me to watch his film and then debate him. I readily agreed to discuss the film with him from a position of skepticism.
That conversation took place on Monday. D’Souza and I spent an hour (interrupted by occasional technical glitches) discussing his film and the evidence provided by True the Vote. The entire conservation is transcribed below; it has been lightly edited, with particularly interesting passages highlighted.
A few recurring themes arose. As I wrote in my assessment of the movie, the central claim developed by True the Vote and elevated by D’Souza focuses on cellphone geolocation data that they used to identify people who they claim visited both nonprofit organizations...
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