Videos show conservative activists cheering on voter suppression: 'We need to stop those ballots from going out'

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

When conservatives gathered behind closed doors for conferences of the right-wing Council for National Policy, their talks had a common theme: Voter suppression.

Conservatives met for three days in February and another three in August, maskless regardless of Virginia state policies, to discuss election strategies and other goals, The Washington Post reports. One August speaker was Charlie Kirk, the founder of the college conservative group Turning Point USA. At one point, Kirk pinned college campus shutdowns on Democrats, and then called those purported decisions a "very foolish thing" because it's going to lose them opportunities to "harvest" left-leaning college students' votes, video of the event obtained by the Post reveals. "Please, keep the campuses closed, it's a great thing," he said.

Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, was more explicit. He alleged Democrats were "war-gaming" a plan to make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) president, and used that as a call for conservative action against mail-in ballots. "We need to stop those ballots from going out, and I want the lawyers here to tell us what to do," Fitton said in video obtained by the Post . J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department official, meanwhile told attendees to oppose mail-in voting and "be not afraid of the accusations that you're a voter suppressor, you're a racist and so forth."

Read more about what CNP attendees had to say about voting at The Washington Post .

More stories from theweek.com
Will there be another Trump surprise in Michigan?
The 1 big problem with 2 town halls
Democrats need a better counter to 'originalism'